GRAINS-Soybeans slide on disappointing US export data; corn also down

(Recasts; updates prices, adds quotes, changes byline, changes dateline from previous LONDON/CANBERRA)

By Julie Ingwersen

CHICAGO, Feb 1 (Reuters) –

U.S. soybean futures fell about 1.5% on Thursday on disappointing weekly U.S. export sales data coupled with strong competition from Brazil, where the soy harvest is expanding, traders said.

Corn sagged in sympathy with soybean futures while wheat futures turned higher on technical buying.

As of 12:43 p.m. CST (1843 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) March soybeans were down 19-1/4 cents at $12.03 per bushel. CBOT March corn was down 2 cents at $4.46-1/4 a bushel while March wheat was up 4-3/4 cents at $6.00 a bushel.

Soybeans slumped after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported old-crop U.S. soybean

export sales

in the week to Jan. 25 at 164,500 metric tons, the lowest weekly tally for the 2023/24 marketing year that began Sept. 1.

Traders largely shrugged off news that the USDA separately confirmed

private sales

of 206,834 tons of U.S. soybeans to Mexico.

Demand for U.S. soy has been hampered by strong competition from Brazil, where cash soybean prices have been falling, as well as

economic woes in China

, by far the world’s largest soybean buyer.

“Part of it is the Chinese economy; demand is not picking up on the breaks (in price), the way you would think. It feels like the buyers are waiting to get further into Brazil’s harvest,” said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities.

Uncertainty about the exact size of Brazil’s soybean crop underpinned the market. StoneX, a brokerage, lowered its Brazilian soy

production estimate

to 150.35 million metric tons, from 152.8 million a month ago.

Corn futures followed soybeans lower, but declines were limited by brisk weekly U.S. corn export sales of more than 1.2 million tons, near the high end of

trade expectations

.

StoneX estimated Brazil’s

total corn harvest

at 124.5 million tons, practically unchanged from last month.

CBOT wheat futures rose on bargain buying, with the spot March contract holding near psychological support at the $6-per-bushel mark.

Euronext wheat futures

turned higher

after hitting contract lows, but ongoing worries about weak demand and competition from Black Sea supplies continued to anchor prices.

Low prices in Europe have led to widespread protests. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Peter Hobson in Canberra and Nigel Hunt in London; Editing by Paul Simao)

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