*
Low weekly U.S. soybean export sales dent sentiment
*
Market weighs slowing Chinese demand, record Brazilian crop
*
U.S. weather, Ukrainian exports also in focus
(Updates with European trading, changes byline/dateline)
By Gus Trompiz and Naveen Thukral
PARIS/SINGAPORE, April 21 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean
futures slid on Friday as modest weekly U.S. exports, slowing
demand from top importer China and a record harvest in Brazil
weighed on sentiment.
Corn ticked lower, with weakness in crude oil and signs of
improving planting weather in parts of the U.S. Midwest capping
prices.
Wheat edged up after a two-day slide as participants awaited
further developments in talks over Ukrainian exports and
monitored forecasts of rain relief in drought-hit parts of the
U.S. Plains.
"Weak export sales due to the record soybean crop from
Brazil helped to pressure (prices) as Brazil producers are
active sellers and storage is in very tight supply," commodities
research firm Hightower said in a report.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday said weekly
soybean export sales totalled 103,000 tonnes, below trade
expectations.
That suggested a lull in demand after China's soybean
imports from the United States rose 43% in March, data showed on
Friday, amid harvesting delays in Brazil.
But Brazil's record soybean crop is now reaching the market
while soybean port premiums there have fallen to historical lows
in recent days amid lukewarm Chinese demand.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) was down 0.9% at $14.56 a bushel by 1151 GMT.
CBOT corn eased 0.6% to $6.22-1/2 a bushel, while
wheat was up 0.3% at $6.82-1/4 a bushel.
Weakness in crude oil, as economic worries hang over
financial markets, continued to curb grain and oilseeds, which
are partly used in biofuels. Grain markets still faced uncertainty over exports from
war-torn Ukraine, despite a resumption of vessel checks under a
Black Sea deal and plans by the European Union to allow transit
of Ukrainian grain to continue through eastern EU states.
Russia's foreign minister, who is due to meet the head of
the United Nations on Monday, said on Thursday almost nothing
has been done to address Moscow's grievances in relation to the
Black Sea grain corridor deal.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in
Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Sohini Goswami and Susan
Fenton)
