SINGAPORE: Chicago corn slid on Thursday, falling for the first time in four sessions, while soybeans also lost ground as a lack of demand for both products weighed on prices.

Wheat inched higher, recouping some of the deep losses from the previous session.

 

FUNDAMENTALS

* The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.2% at $5.86 a bushel, as of 0012 GMT, and soybeans lost 0.1% to $13.23-3/4 a bushel.

* Wheat added 0.1% to $6.06-3/4 a bushel, having lost 2.6% on Wednesday.

* Dismal demand for corn and soybeans from top importer China is providing headwinds to prices.

* A surplus of cheap wheat in China is replacing significant volumes of corn in its huge animal feed market, say feed makers and analysts, curbing consumption of both corn and soymeal and potentially reducing demand for imports.

* Ukraine accused Russia of effectively cutting the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi out of a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports of food and fertiliser from Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi. Russia complained it had been unable to export ammonia via a pipeline to Pivdennyi.

* Export prices of Russian wheat fell again last week as the world market eased due to good supply and an extension of the Black Sea grain deal, as well as local expectations of a cut in export duty, analysts said.

* The Buenos Aires grains exchange said on Wednesday that intense rains in recent days in Argentina's key agricultural farmland has improved expectations for the 2023/2024 wheat crop, after a historic drought badly crimped yields.

* Rainfall is critical for Argentine farmers to start planting wheat, with sowing set to begin in the coming days. The total crop is estimated at 18 million tonnes, up from the 12.4 million tonnes harvested in the previous season.

* Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT wheat, soybean and soymeal futures contracts on Wednesday, traders said. They were net buyers of CBOT corn and soyoil contracts.

 

MARKET NEWS

* World stocks dropped on Wednesday as U.S. debt ceiling talks dragged on without resolution, stoking a general malaise in markets that saw safe-haven assets such as the dollar hold around recent highs.

 

DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0600 Germany GDP Detailed QQ/YY SA Q1 0645 France Business Climate May 1230 US GDP 2nd Estimate Q1 1230 US Initial Jobless Claims Weekly (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)