HAMBURG: Chicago soybeans and wheat fell on Tuesday and corn was little changed as dealers weighed up the threat to crops from weather in South America and the United States.
The Chicago Board of Trade's most active soybean contract fell 0.3% to $12.90-3/4 a bushel by 1153 GMT.
Wheat fell 0.3% to $7.75-1/4 a bushel and corn was down 0.04% at $5.90-3/4 a bushel.
"Soybean, wheat and corn markets are drifting around today, with recent reports of weather problems in several regions being assessed. The holiday period is starting to generate a risk-off mood before Christmas," said Matt Ammermann, commodity risk manager at StoneX.
"Soybeans have been supported by fears of dryness in South America, but this, today, looks like weather hype rather than concrete problems. North and central Brazil looks fine; the concern is about dryness southern Brazil and Argentina. If crops receive rain they will still be all right."
Argentina's Buenos Aires grains exchange last week said that the central farm belt in the world's leading exporter of processed soybeans was set for very high temperatures in the coming days, followed by moderate to heavy rain.
"We are in the key time frame right now, where steady rains are wanted in Argentina but not yet needed," Ammermann said.
"For wheat there remains talk about dryness in U.S. hard red winter regions and impact of the wind/dust storm last week. The lack of proper snow coverage for most of the Northern Hemisphere still means plenty of risks going into winter."
In the United States, Kansas crop observers said the hurricane-force winds that raked the U.S. Plains last week appeared to cause varying degrees of damage to a winter wheat crop that was already struggling with dryness.
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