June 29 (Reuters) - Chicago corn futures rebounded in Asian trading on Thursday after two sessions of sharp losses, with traders awaiting U.S. weekly export sales data later in the day and U.S. acreage and quarterly grain stocks reports on Friday for further direction.
Gains were however capped as forecasts for beneficial rains in the U.S. Midwest eased persistent worries about dry weather hurting the crop.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 1% at $5.42 a bushel, as of 0415 GMT, after tumbling more than 4% in the previous session.
Soybeans gained 0.6% to $12.72 a bushel, also recovering from a two-session slump, while wheat added 0.2% at $6.71 a bushel after a four-session sell-off amid signs of rising global supply.
CBOT corn, soybeans and wheat, however, remained on track for weekly losses even as prices, analysts said, are expected to continue fluctuating.
Earlier this week, brokers were seen squaring positions ahead of the U.S. acreage and quarterly stocks reports due on Friday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The condition of U.S. soybean and corn crops deteriorated to the worst in decades, U.S. government data showed on Monday, as major producing areas missed out on much-needed rains.
"The corn trade continued to remove weather premium from prices off the conclusion that a growing list of scattered, repetitive, and limited rain events have improved the prospects of the crop," commodities research firm Hightower said in a report.
Traders also awaited the USDA weekly export sales report due later in the day, with trade expectations for old-crop corn in the week to June 22 ranging from net cancellations of 100,000 tonnes to net sales of 500,000 tonnes.
For new-crop corn, traders expected weekly export sales of zero to 200,000 tonnes.
Support for wheat, meanwhile, emerged after Russian state statistics service Rosstat said on Wednesday that 4.3%, or 249,000 hectares, of the sown area of winter grains and pulses had died as of June 1, as drought hit many Russian regions.
(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
