(Updates with closing prices)
By Mark Weinraub
CHICAGO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade
soybean and corn futures fell on Tuesday as investors squared
positions ahead of the U.S. government's key monthly reports on
global supply and demand.
Traders were focused on the size of the corn and soybean
harvests in Argentina as drought stressed the crops in that key
global supplier throughout planting and early periods of
development.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide a fresh
update on its view of the damage done to harvest prospects in
its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report on
Wednesday.
"Normally February is a benign report, (but) Argentina is
going to be kind of the wild card," said Terry Reilly, senior
analyst at Futures International.
Wheat futures were mixed. K.C. hard red winter wheat
contracts rose on concerns about tight supplies of high protein
wheat and fresh forecasts for dry weather in key production
areas of the U.S. Plains.
But the most-active Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter
wheat contracts were weaker on prospects for a strong crop in
the U.S. Midwest and concerns about U.S. supplies struggling to
find traction on the export market.
CBOT March soybean futures settled down 6 cents at
$15.15-1/4 a bushel. CBOT March corn was off 5 cents at
$6.74 a bushel.
CBOT March soft red winter wheat ended down 1/2
cent at $7.49-3/4 a bushel, while K.C. March hard red winter
wheat gained 10-1/2 cents to $8.86-1/2 a bushel.
Algeria’s state grains agency OAIC
started buying milling wheat
in a tender on Tuesday, with prices indicating that the
wheat could be sourced from the west EU, east EU/Black Sea
region and Russia, traders said.
Jordan's state grain buyer is believed to have
made no purchase
in an international tender to buy 120,000 tonnes of milling
wheat.
(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Matthew Chye
in Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Tomasz Janowski and
Paul Simao)
Messaging: gus.trompiz.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
