Wheat eases for 4th day on ample world supply; corn, soy fall

SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat futures lost more ground on Thursday, falling for a fourth consecutive session and trading close to its lowest since late June on pressure from ample global supplies.

Corn and soybean prices gave up some of last session's gains as weather forecasts indicated little stress to maturing crops in the US Midwest.

The Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat contract lost 0.5 percent to $4.58-1/4 a bushel by 0310 GMT, holding just above Wednesday's low of $4.55-3/4, the weakest since late June.

Corn gave up 0.3 percent to $3.78 a bushel. Soybeans slid 0.4 percent to $9.73-1/4 a bushel.

Poor conditions for US spring wheat have largely been priced in, according to traders and analysts, and harvesting of the drought-hit crop is under way. Rising expectations for rival exporter Russia's production are tempering supply concerns.

Russian agriculture consultancy IKAR on Tuesday increased its estimate for this year's wheat harvest in Russia to a record 74 million to 77 million tonne range.

"The Russian production estimate at a record this year has come as a surprise," said one agricultural commodities analyst.

"But we see the downside limited for wheat because dryness in US, Canada and Australia is curbing global supplies."

For corn and soybeans, weather forecasts showed few serious threats in the next two weeks for the heart of the US Midwest crop belt. The corn crop is filling kernels and soybeans are in the pod-setting phase.

Corn rose on Wednesday after a lower yield estimate from commodity brokerage INTL FCStone. The firm late Tuesday projected the US corn crop at 13.590 billion bushels, with an average yield of 162.8 bushels per acre (bpa).

The estimate is well below the USDA's most recent forecast for a corn crop of 14.255 billion bushels, with a trend-based yield of 170.4 bpa.

Commodity funds were net buyers of Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures contracts on Wednesday and net sellers of wheat, traders said.