CHICAGO, June 24 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn, soybean and wheat futures fell on Thursday, pressured by rain in key growing areas of the U.S. Midwest and forecasts for more showers that will shepherd crops through critical development stages, traders said.
"I think it is probably confirmation of fairly widespread rain in areas that were in really dire straits," said Chuck Shelby, president of Risk Management Commodities. "It was good timing."
Investment funds liquidated some of their long positions in the commodities as markets fell through key support points, adding to the weakness.
At 10:25 a.m. CDT (1525 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade corn futures for December delivery, which tracks the crop currently being grown in the United States, were down 8-1/2 cents at $5.27-1/4 a bushel. The contract hit its lowest since May 26.
CBOT November soybeans were off 20 cents at $12.80-1/4 a bushel.
Soybeans were on track for their third straight day of losses, and their 11th in the last 12 sessions, despite a recent flurry of export deals.
The U.S. Agriculture Department on Thursday morning said that private exporters reported the sale of 132,000 tonnes of soybeans to China and 260,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations. USDA has announced similar deals twice this week.
CBOT September soft red winter wheat was down 14-3/4 cents at $6.49 a bushel.
Plentiful global supplies of wheat added pressure.
Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, started harvesting its 2021 grain crop on Wednesday with bright prospects for another year of large production.
Sovecon, one of the leading agriculture consultancies in Moscow, on Wednesday raised its forecast for Russia's 2021 wheat crop by 2.2 million tonnes to 84.6 million tonnes. (Additional reporting by Colin Packham in Canberra and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; editing by Mark Heinrich and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
