Soybean prices near lowest since early Oct, S.American weather weighs

SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures edged lower on Tuesday, with the market trading near its lowest in almost 11 weeks as forecasts of rain in Argentina's drought-hit oilseed growing areas weighed on prices.

Wheat rose for a second session on concerns over a lack of snow cover in the US Plains leaving the crop vulnerable to cold temperatures.

Rains that fell on Argentina's main farm belt over the weekend brought relief to parched soybean and corn-growing land, meteorologists said on Monday, allowing the planting of crops to resume in most of the affected areas.

Argentina is the world's top exporter of soymeal used in livestock feed and the No. 3 corn supplier.

"South American weather is improving, while US soybean exports remain weak. The window for recovery in US exports is closing slowly as by the end of January we will have Brazilian beans entering the market," said one India-based agricultural commodities analyst at an international bank.

"Wheat has some weather issues in the US but the crop has long way to go before we get too worried."

The Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybean contract slid 0.1 percent to $9.61 a bushel by 0315 GMT, after hitting on Monday its weakest since Oct. 4 at $9.57-1/4 a bushel.

Wheat added 0.1 percent to $4.21 a bushel and corn was unchanged at $3.47 a bushel.

Brazilian farmers are expected to produce 114.57 million tonnes of soybeans in the 2017/18 crop cycle, consultancy Safras & Mercado said on Monday. The figure represents a slight downward adjustment from an October estimate of 114.7 million tonnes, although it would still be an all-time high for Brazil.

Speculation that the US Department of Agriculture may raise its US corn production estimate next month weighed on prices after private analytics firm Informa Economics lifted its estimate on Friday.

Reviewing the most recent US harvest, it put the 2017 corn yield at 176.6 bushels per acre, above the USDA's last estimate of 175.4.

For wheat, a combination of delays to autumn planting and dry conditions in the southern US Plains have left the hard red winter crop vulnerable to freeze damage, crop experts said, which could further tighten supplies of high-protein wheat.

Russian wheat export prices fell last week as competition with Romanian wheat was intensified by the latest Egyptian purchase, analysts said on Monday.

Commodity funds were net sellers of Chicago Board of Trade soybean, corn, soymeal and soyoil contracts on Monday, traders said.