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Soybeans ease further from Monday's eight-month top
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Wheat dipped, Black Sea supply threat underpins prices
(Updates with European trading, details and changes
byline/dateline)
By Gus Trompiz and Naveen Thukral
PARIS/SINGAPORE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean
futures fell for a second session on Wednesday, pulling further
back from an eight-month high as an advancing Brazilian harvest
pressured prices, analysts said.
Wheat and corn edged down as traders assessed risks to Black
Sea supplies from the war in Ukraine.
Caution also prevailed in wider financial markets as
investors assessed inflation readings for pointers on further
possible interest rate hikes.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) was down 0.6% at $15.28-1/2 a bushel by 1120
GMT.
The contract had risen to its highest since June on Monday,
driven by a near nine-year top for soymeal as drought
persisted in Argentina.
"After focusing on the deterioration of production in
Argentina over the past few days, soybean traders are once again
taking into account the pressure of the crop coming from
Brazil," consultancy Agritel said.
The Brazilian soybean harvest was 17% complete by Thursday,
agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, while Scoville
noted that progress was more advanced in Mato Grosso, Brazil's
biggest soybean state.
Brazilian consultancy Agroconsult slightly lowered its
estimate of the country's soybean harvest, but still projected a
record volume at 153 million tonnes.
CBOT wheat ticked 0.1% lower to $7.85-1/4 a bushel while
corn fell 0.6% to $6.78-1/4 a bushel.
In the latest Russian criticism of a wartime agreement
allowing Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, Moscow
said on Monday it would be "inappropriate" to extend the deal
unless sanctions affecting its agricultural exports were lifted.
Some traders, however, expect the corridor agreement to be
extended like it was last November.
India's wheat production is likely to rise 4.1% to a record
112.2 million tonnes this year, the government said on Tuesday,
though traders are watching to see if the authorities maintain
an export ban.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in
Singapore; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
