(New throughout; updates byline, dateline previously PARIS/SINGAPORE)
* Early crop tour results see mixed soybean, corn yields
* Tuesday's tour findings less promising than Monday's
* Wheat steady as attack on Ukrainian grain port assessed
CHICAGO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean and corn futures firmed on Wednesday, supported by hot, dry conditions that compound signs of stress found in initial results of a widely followed U.S. Midwest field tour.
Wheat also ticked higher as traders assessed the latest Russian attack on a Ukrainian grain port and monitored North American spring wheat crops for drought stress.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) lifted 7-1/4 cents to $13.53-1/4 a bushel by 11:11 a.m. (1611 GMT).
CBOT corn added 8 cents to $4.87-1/2 a bushel, while CBOT wheat gained 12 cents to $6.39-1/2 a bushel. Indiana and Nebraska corn yield prospects were higher than last year, the ProFarmer Crop Tour announced Tuesday evening, but below the three-year average. Nebraska's soybean pod count also beat year-ago findings but fell below five-year averages, while Indiana's soybean crop potential is the strongest in five years, tour officials said. On Monday, corn and soybean results in Ohio bested both last year and three-year averages.
"Most people seem pretty disappointed. Not that these are bad yields, but they were expecting better," said Jack Scoville, market analyst at The Price Futures Group. Soybeans were further supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's report of private export sales of 100,000 metric tons of soymeal to unknown destinations for delivery in the 2023/24 marketing year.
Upside potential for both corn and soybeans was limited by demand, said Bill Lapp, ag economist at Advanced Economic Solutions.
"I don’t think there’s anything coming along from an export perspective," Lapp said. "That’s what we’ll be trading soon, export demand." Wheat found support from corn, as well as news that a Russian drone attack on the Danube River port of Izmail in southern Ukraine on Wednesday destroyed 13,000 metric tons of grain, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
However, market reaction was restrained because the impact on overall Black Sea supply appeared limited, as in previous strikes against grain infrastructure sites. Consultancy Sovecon has raised its Russian wheat harvest forecast for 2023 to 92.1 million metric tons from 87.1 million, it said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Christopher Walljasper; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
