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Soybeans down for 4th session, at lowest since late-Oct
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All-time high Brazilian crops weigh Chicago soybean futures
SINGAPORE, March 24 (Reuters) - Chicago soybeans lost more ground on Friday, with prices dropping to their lowest levels in almost five months, as supplies from freshly harvested record Brazilian crop continue to pressure the market.
Wheat ticked higher, although renewal of a Black Sea export deal kept a lid on prices and corn futures fell.
"Talk of the big crop in Brazil which will help offset the Argentine crop, plus the rumours that there could be Brazilian soybeans moving towards the East Coast of the U.S. helped to add to the bearish tone," commodities research firm the Highetower said in a report.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybeans fell 0.3% to $14.15-3/4 a bushel, as of 0226 GMT, after dropping earlier in the session to their lowest since end-October at $14.05 a bushel.
Wheat climbed 0.2% to $6.63-1/2 a bushel and corn gave up 0.1% at $6.31-1/4 a bushel.
For the week, wheat lost 6.7%, the biggest in one month, soybeans have lost more than 4% and corn gave up around half a percent.
Harvest of a record Brazilin soybean crop is weighing on prices.
Argentina's Buenos Aires grains exchange maintained its 2022/2023 production forecasts for both soy and corn on Thursday, but cautioned further cuts were possible with yields on the first batches of soy coming in below expectations.
The exchange, which has been forced by a historic drought hitting the country to repeatedly sharply cut soybean and corn harvest forecasts, held its soy estimate at 25 million tonnes and its corn outlook at 36 million tonnes.
The Black Sea deal, allowing the safe export of grain from Ukrainian and Russian Black Sea ports, was renewed on Saturday for 60 days.
Selling by funds added pressure on agricultural commodities.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean, wheat, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Thursday, traders said.
Losses in the corn market were trimmed by strong Chinese purchases.
China purchased another 123,000 tonnes of U.S. corn, bringing the total export sales to the country to more than 2.5 million tonnes in recent deals.
The uptick in Chinese demand is likely driven by the shipping window before Brazil's safrinha crop and concerns about a shorter 60-day extension of the Black Sea grains corridor, traders said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said export sales of wheat in the week ended March 16 totalled 138,600 tonnes, below trade forecasts.
Corn export sales were reported at 3.189 million tonnes, in line with expectations. Export sales of soybeans totalled 351,500 tonnes, below market forecast.
The Russian government will consider increasing grain purchases by the state intervention fund to 10 million tonnes, the Interfax news agency reported Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko as saying on Thursday.
The fund bought a total of 3 million tonnes in 2022. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
