CHICAGO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures sagged in the past week as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that U.S. interest rates would go higher for longer, Chicago-based research company AgResource said in a weekly roundup on Sunday.

However, the rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank via a run-on liquidity by its customers showed the fragility of segments of the U.S. economy.

With the U.S. consumer price index report due out on Tuesday, AgResource expected the U.S. central bank to raise its lending rate to 5.00 percent to 5.25 percent at it market monetary policy meeting.

May CBOT corn fell to a new post-harvest low as chart patterns stayed bearish. Fundamental input in the past week leaned positive, and AgResouce shed previous bearish sentiment as Argentina's yield losses cross threshold as seen only a few times in history.

This will support U.S. corn demand into the summer. Additionally, global corn stocks will not be building in 2022-2023, which raises the burden considerably on U.S. Midwest weather between April and August.

The break in the market has quickly bolstered U.S. export demand. South American surpluses will be absent until July. As questions over U.S. planted area and Ukrainian production cannot be answered right now, it is premature to count on record U.S. yields. AgResource's upside target remains 5.90 to 6.20 U.S. dollars for December corn.

CBOT wheat fell to the lowest level since July 2021 on accelerated fund selling. The market's inability to hold 7.00-dollar support accelerated long liquidation and the establishment of new short positions. A fundamental catalyst for sub-6.50-dollar wheat is lacking and cash sales are not recommended at the current prices.

Russia's cash market has not followed the break in European Union and U.S. markets. Wheat in Eastern Europe is the world's cheapest milling origin wheat.

AgResource estimated managed funds' short position in Chicago at an excessive 110,000 contracts. A larger short has not been seen since autumn in 2018. U.S. wheat market is undervalued and prone to sharp short covering rallies.

Soybean futures traded on both sides unchanged through the past week and finished slightly lower.

The March World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) report was viewed as supportive as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) raised its annual crush forecast by 25 million bushels and lowered the end stock forecast by 15 million bushels to 210 million bushels. If realized, it would be the lowest U.S. soybean stocks figure in seven years.

For global estimates, USDA cut its forecast for Argentine soybean production by 8 million metric tons to 33 million metric tons, which puts total USDA cuts at 12 million metric tons since January.

After the USDA report was released, the Rosario Grain Exchange lowered its estimate for the Argentine crop to 27 million metric tons, down from the previous estimate of 34.5 million metric tons.

The sharp reduction in the Argentine crop scale can no longer be dismissed or ignored. CBOT soybean prices are expected to find support on breaks back to or below 15.00 dollars, while a weekly close above 15.60 dollars will signal a longer-term technical breakout.

May soybeans are likely to score new contract highs and could rise to 16.00-16.50 dollars for a seasonal top in early summer.