SINGAPORE/PARIS: Chicago wheat futures slid for a third session with the US hard red winter crop's resilience to late spring snow storms pulling the market lower while soybeans were virtually flat after recovering from early losses.
Corn was down slightly, extending the previous day's fall on concerns over planting delays in the US grain belt.
The Chicago Board Of Trade's most-active wheat contract fell by 0.2 percent to $4.28-1/2 a bushel, having closed down 1.1 percent on Tuesday.
Soybeans were little changed at $9.48-3/4 after falling 0.4 percent in overnight trade and having closed 0.9 percent down on Tuesday.
Corn edged lower, down less than 0.1 percent to $3.69-1/4 a bushel, having closed 1.5 percent down in the previous session.
"The flood situation is not so severe. Farmers in the US Midwest are able to plant crops, as we can see from the USDA data," said Kaname Gokon of Tokyo brokerage Okato Shoji.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Monday that the US corn crop was 84 percent planted by May 21, slightly behind an average of trade expectations but close to the period's five-year average of 85 percent.
The USDA estimated US soybean plantings were 53 percent complete, just above the five-year average of 52 percent.
Soybean futures also drew support from a USDA announcement on Tuesday that private exporters sold 126,000 tonnes of old-crop US soybeans to unknown destinations.
The market awaits the USDA's first corn condition ratings for the season, which the government expects to release in its next weekly crop progress report on May 30.
The wheat market extended losses after the USDA rated 52 percent of the US winter wheat crop as good to excellent, up from 51 percent a week earlier.
Analysts on average had expected a decline, given wet conditions in the southern Plains and Midwest that raised concerns about yield prospects and grain quality.
Still, there could be support for oilseed prices with adverse weather delaying planting in Canada.
Heavy rain forecast for the soggiest parts of the Canadian Prairies this week is likely to delay plantings in the world's biggest canola exporting country, meteorologists say.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean and wheat futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said. They were also net sellers of soymeal and soyoil futures.
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