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Record Brazil soybean crop seen filling export markets
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Wheat rebound supported by report Russia may pause exports
(Updates with European trading, changes byline/dateline)
By Gus Trompiz and Naveen Thukral
PARIS/SINGAPORE, March 24 (Reuters) - Chicago soybeans
extended losses on Friday to a five-month low as a bumper
Brazilian harvest was seen flowing onto export markets, while
wheat rebounded as a report Russia may consider halting exports
revived uncertainty about Black Sea supply.
Corn tracked wheat higher to trade near Thursday's
three-week high that was fuelled by a flurry of U.S. exports to
China.
Volatility in financial markets, with the dollar index rallying as investors remained wary of a banking crisis,
was also hanging over grains, traders said. The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) fell 0.7% to $14.09-3/4 a bushel, by 1212
GMT, after dropping earlier to its lowest since end-October at
$14.05.
Harvesting of what is forecast to be a record Brazilian
soybean crop has eased concern about drought losses in Argentina
and raised the prospect of stiff export competition for U.S.
supplies.
"Talk of the big crop in Brazil which will help offset the
Argentine crop, plus the rumours that there could be Brazilian
soybeans moving towards the East Coast of the U.S. helped to add
to the bearish tone," commodities research firm Hightower said
in a report.
Weekly U.S. export sales of soybeans reported on Thursday,
that came in below market estimates, reinforced expectations
that Brazil will increasingly capture export demand.
CBOT wheat climbed 3.0% to $6.81-1/2 a bushel,
breaking a four-session fall and moving away from a 20-month low
struck on Wednesday.
Wheat has been pressured this week by the continuation of a
wartime export corridor from Ukraine, falling Russian prices and
improved weather for U.S. and European crops.
But a report in Russian business newspaper Vedomosti saying
that Moscow could recommend a temporary halt in wheat and
sunflower exports, in response to falling prices, helped the
market to steady.
"The market is clearly reacting to this after the big price
fall this week," a European trader said.
Any Russian restrictions could add to supply uncertainty in
the Black Sea region after Moscow said last week it had only
agreed to a reduced 60-day extension of the export corridor from
Ukraine.
CBOT corn added 0.8% to $6.37-1/4 a bushel.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in
Singaore; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Elaine
Hardcastle)
