PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures fell for a second day on Wednesday as expectations of a bumper US crop and concerns about a protracted US-China trade dispute weighed on the oilseed market.
Corn prices were almost unchanged and wheat ticked lower in subdued trading as investors looked ahead to the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) widely followed world crop report on Thursday.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.4 percent at $8.59-3/4 a bushel by 1138 GMT.
CBOT corn inched down 0.1 percent to $3.64-1/4 a bushel, while wheat eased 0.5 percent to $5.12-1/2 a bushel.
"Operators are adjusting their positions (before the USDA report) and prices are going down slightly after the testing of resistance levels last week for corn and soybeans," consultancy Agritel said in a note.
US futures had found support in the past week from heavy rain that was hampering harvesting of corn and soybeans and also threatening to cause flooding in winter wheat belts.
The USDA said on Tuesday that 32 percent of the soybean crop had been harvested, below market expectations, while the corn harvest progress of 34 percent was in line with the average of analyst estimates.
But analysts still expect the USDA to increase its US corn and soybean yield and production forecasts as well as raise its US and world grain and soybean stocks projections.
Soybeans faced additional pressure after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated threats to impose tariffs on $267 billion worth of additional Chinese imports.
The trade spat between the two countries has already stifled lucrative flows of US soybeans to China, the world's largest importer of the oilseed.
The corn market was assessing Trump's decision to end a ban on summer sales of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, a move seen as designed to reassure farmers hurt by the US-China trade dispute and who have long sought relief for corn-based ethanol.
Chicago wheat had been boosted by news on Tuesday that exporters sold spring wheat to Bangladesh.
But an increase to Russia's official forecast for grain exports in 2018/19 tempered talk of tightening supply in the world's biggest wheat exporting country.
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