There was something of a "risk on" feel about markets, as riskier assets pretty much across the board posted gains.

The headway was most remarkable in Shanghai equities, which rebounded 2.3%.

But then the market headway on Tuesday was seen largely as down to China, and reassurance on its economic growth, which had been in question after soft monthly data on both manufacturing and services sectors, fostering losses of more than 3% in Shanghai shares in the previous session.

Wen Jiabao, the outgoing premier, said that China is aiming to grow its economy by 7.5% this year, and keep consumer inflation running around 3.5%.

'Strong headwinds'

Could wheat, which also had a dismal start to the week, falling to eight-month lows, stage a rebound too?

Well, the rising market tide did lift all boats, to some extent, enabling the grain to add 0.3% to $6.97 ¾ a bushel in Chicago for March delivery, and 0.5% to $7.06 ¼ a bushel for May delivery as pf 09:35 UK time (03:35 Chicago time).

That was a fraction of the losses in the last session, of course, fuelled by ideas of rains breaking the drought which has tested US winter wheat seedlings.

"Melting snow in snow-capped US Plains added significant moisture to the winter wheat crop," Joyce Liu at Phillip Futures said.

"With even more rains expected by end of this week and weekly export inspections near the low end of trade expectations, the headwinds for wheat prices are strong."

Furthermore, many investors believe the US Department of Agriculture will in its monthly Wasde report, on Friday, lift its estimate for end-2012-13 domestic stocks of the grain, by 11m bushels to 702m bushels according to a Bloomberg survey.

Seasonal play

However, the grain does have some friends, with some investors questioning whether falls to this level are justified, by fundamentals anyway, given that stocks of grains overall are hardly ample.

"The wheat market doesn't have any friends at the moment, as wheat has a strong tendency to trade lower into the spring when the US carryout is adequate," Benson Quinn Commodities said.

"For the moment, this seems to be trumping the tight world carryout and signals from the commercial that wheat prices have fallen far enough."

There appear plenty of importers interested in purchases, even if Agritel added to ideas that US wheat did not feature in Saudi Arabia's 575,000-tonne purchase announced at the weekend.

"The American and European origins seem excluded in the transaction considering the purchase price," the Paris-based group said.

'Actively pursuing coverage'

Wheat's recovery was barely enough to tip the needle in any effort to regain its typical premium over Chicago corn.

Indeed, March corn entrenched its premium, adding 0.6% to $7.27 a bushel, with the May lot, in adding 0.5% to $7.07 a bushel, keeping just ahead of its wheat peer.

Corn is being supported in part by ideas of a downgrade to the Argentine crop in Friday's Wasde, more than offsetting better prospects for Brazil, and also by ideas of resilient US demand, with exports picking up a touch and the increasing value of ethanol Rins.

Rins - paper credits for ethanol production which blenders can use as an alternative to the physical biofuel to meet mandated commitments, and which have been worth next to nothing historically - approached $0.80 a gallon on Monday.

"Better Rin values offer additional support to ethanol production margins, and the domestic processor has been actively pursuing coverage on improving margins," Benson Quinn said.

Crop debate

This time Chicago soybeans gained in line, adding 0.3% to $14.65 ¾ a bushel for May delivery, and to $14.94 ¼ a bushel for the March contract.

This brings the March lot within sight of the $15.00-a-bushel level which has represented a ceiling to upward progress since November.

Whether the contract gets through it conclusively before it expires on March 14 may turn out to depend on the Wasde, in which analysts also see some scope for cuts to the USDA's forecast for Argentine harvest, after early-2013 drought, and the Brazilian one too, thanks to early-2013 inundations.

Latest estimates for the Argentine crop have come in below 50m tonnes, compared with a current USDA estimate of 53.0m tonnes.

The Brazilian crop was downgraded by Safras e Mercado to 82.2m tonnes, and by Clarivi to 82.6m tonnes, below a USDA estimate of 83.5m tonnes, although Agroconsult has the crop at 84.2m tonnes.

Celeres this week held its forecast at 80.1m tonnes.

Competition for cane

Soft commodities made a modestly positive start too, with New York raw sugar extending its recovery, adding 0.4% to 18.15 cents a pound for May delivery, helped by Brazilian government support, through tax exemptions, for ethanol manufacture.

"Brazil's ethanol are produced from sugar and any jump in ethanol production will help draw down on the record high sugar stocks now," Phillip Futures' Ms Liu said.

"At the moment, we still do not expect large gains in sugar prices but we can expect prices to resume the 18-19 cents-per-pound trading range."

Cotton for May rose 0.5% to 86.62 cents a pound in New York, within an ace of a nine-month high, helped by ideas that the USDA will in Friday's Wasde lift its estimate for domestic exports of the fibre in 2012-13.

'Mini slump in prices'

But in Kuala Lumpur, palm oil missed out on the rising tide, falling 0.4% to 2,404 ringgit a tonne.

The market felt some negative effect from a slowdown in operations at some Malaysian palm refineries, amid unrest on Borneo island, where Filipino gunmen were blamed for an attack on police officers on Friday.

Eyes are also on a key industry conference in Kuala Lumpur, at which not all the mood music has been price positive.

Frost & Sullivan said that palm oil producers needed to find new uses for palm oil to avoid sustained weakness in prices.

Oversupply from increased plantings in Indonesia "will take time to alleviate", the trader said, adding that "we could possibly see another mini slump in prices in 2013".