LONDON: Chicago soybean futures fell on Tuesday for a second successive session on Tuesday, pressured by the rapidly advancing harvest of a record crop in Brazil and much-needed rains in Argentina.
Wheat edged down for the first time in six sessions as ample global supply pulled the market away from its highest level in more than seven months, touched on Monday.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 4-1/4 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $10.50 a bushel by 1221 GMT.
Brazil soybean industry group Abiove said it expects local production of the oilseed to hit 104.6 million tonnes in 2016/17, up from its December forecast of 101.7 million tonnes. It pegged the country's soybean exports at 58.7 million tonnes.
"Brazil's soybean harvest has picked up the pace and is now about 18 percent complete compared with a five-year average of 11 percent," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"Argentina's crop received beneficial rain over the weekend, with additional showers expected this week."
Dealers said that selling by US soybean farmers has also helped to stall a run-up in prices this month.
US farmers have made advance sales of up to half the soybeans they expect to harvest this year, looking to get ahead of the expected record South American crop.
Wheat prices fell, weighed by plentiful global supplies, with CBOT March down 0.8 percent at $4.48-3/4 a bushel and March milling wheat in Paris off 0.7 percent at 171.75 euros a tonne.
Dealers said that an upward revision to Australia's crop had helped to stall the recent run-up in prices.
The Australian Bureau of Agriculture, Resource Economics and Rural Sciences said the country's 2016/17 wheat harvest was a record 35.13 million tonnes.
CBOT corn prices were also lower, with the most active contract down 0.5 percent at $3.73-3/4 a bushel.
The US Department of Agriculture on Monday reported weekly corn export inspections of 1.256 million tonnes, up from 1.124 million tonnes a week ago. The weekly total topped trade forecasts for between 900,000 tonnes and 1.1 million tonnes.
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