Wheat firms after deep losses, corn down on U.S. harvest pressure

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SINGAPORE — Chicago wheat prices rose on Monday, with bargain-buying underpinning the market after fears of a global economic downturn triggered a sharp sell-off in the previous session.

Corn futures lost more ground on pressure from dry weather aiding the U.S. harvest, while soybeans edged higher.

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FUNDAMENTALS

* The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.4% to $8.84 a bushel, as of 0021 GMT, after dropping more than 3% on Friday.

* Corn fell 0.4% to $6.74 a bushel and soybeans rose 0.1% to 14.27-1/4 a bushel.

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* Outlooks for clear Midwest weather weighed on corn prices, even though the U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected a smaller crop compared to a year ago.

* The harvest is just beginning in the heart of the corn belt, with 7% of the U.S. corn crop and 3% of the U.S. soybean crop cut as of Sept. 18.

* South American soybean production will hit a record high in the season that is now being planted, agribusiness consultancy Datagro said on Friday, citing an expected area expansion to an all-time high.

* The market continues to monitor the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. U.S. and European wheat futures markets on Thursday reached their highest levels since July 11, after Moscow’s moves to mobilize more troops and back referendums on joining Russia in occupied regions of Ukraine fueled concern about further disruption to vital Black Sea grain trade.

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* A total of 211 ships with 4.7 million tonnes of agricultural products on board have left Ukraine so far under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to unblock Ukrainian sea ports, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry said on Saturday.

* Ukraine’s 2022 grain harvest could total between 54.1 and 55.7 million tonnes compared with a record 86 million tonnes due to the Russian invasion which has reduced the harvested area, analyst APK-Inform said on Saturday.

* French farmers had harvested 26% of this year’s grain maize crop by Sept. 19, compared with 14% a week earlier, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday.

* Large speculators raised their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to Sept. 20, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

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* The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans.

MARKET NEWS

* Asian stocks were set to start the final week of the quarter on the slide on Monday, while the dollar stood ascendant, as the prospect of high interest rates and poor growth shakes markets.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0800 Germany Ifo Business Climate New Sep 0800 Germany Ifo Curr Conditions New Sep 0800 Germany Ifo Expectations New Sep 0535 Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda to deliver speech, meet business leaders in Osaka 1300 Introductory statement by ECB President Christine Lagarde at the hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament in Brussels (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)