SINGAPORE  - Chicago corn and soybean futures slid on Wednesday with prices weighed down by forecasts of dry weather in parts of the U.S. Midwest, lifting hopes of an improved crop condition.

Wheat fell as the market faced pressure from winter crop harvest gathering pace in top northern hemisphere exporters.

The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was down 0.6% at $4.45 a bushel, as of 0334 GMT, soybeans lost 0.6% to $8.98-1/2 a bushel and wheat gave up 0.3% at $5.38-1/4 a bushel.

Updated forecasts suggest farmers may have a chance to plant more acres of soybean this week ahead of the next wave of storms.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Monday 96% of corn and 77% of soybeans have been planted. At the same point last year, all U.S. corn acres and 93% of soybeans were planted.

The USDA also rated 56% of the U.S. corn crop in good-to-excellent condition, down from 59% last week and behind market expectations of 59%.

Some 54% of U.S. soybeans were seen in good-to-excellent condition, below expectations of 59%. 

The USDA said 61% of U.S. winter wheat was in good-to-excellent condition, down from 64% last week.

The agency is due to issue acreage report on Friday. 

"The USDA's acreage report, released on Friday, is looming ever larger over the market," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy, Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"And the genuine 'news' in Monday's condition report was very modest compared with what is potentially in Friday's acreage report."

CBOT July corn may break a support at $4.42-3/4 per bushel and fall to the next support at $4.36-1/4, as suggested by a retracement analysis, according to Wang Tao, a Reuters analyst for commodities technicals.

These supports are identified as the 38.2% and the 50% retracements on the uptrend from $4.08-1/4 to $4.64-1/4. The drop from $4.64-1/4 consists of three waves. So far, only two have completed.

Wheat market prices were weighed down by expectations of dry weather in the U.S. Plains and the Midwest, which will boost harvest of the Hard Red winter wheat crop.

Farmers from Ukraine's southern and central regions have harvested almost 1.6 million tonnes of grain from the 2019 harvest, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry expects 2019 grain harvest to exceed last year's record crop of 70 million tonnes.

Conditions for Russia's spring wheat harvest are generally good or satisfactory with only a few areas affected by a heatwave that has hit some parts of the country, state weather forecaster Hydrometcentre said on Tuesday.

© Reuters News 2019