CANBERRA, May 15 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures held their ground on Wednesday after data showed that bean processing had slowed in the U.S. and the crop agency of Brazil, the biggest grower and exporter, raised its harvest forecast.
Wheat edged higher as traders weighed the effect of adverse weather on crops in top shipper Russia, while corn was little changed.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was roughly unchanged at $12.15 a bushel by 0044 GMT, after falling slightly in the previous session.
* CBOT wheat rose 0.2% to $6.73-1/2 a bushel and corn climbed 0.1% to $4.67-3/4 a bushel.
* Plentiful supply pushed all three contracts to their lowest levels since 2020 earlier this year but prices have recovered some ground due to adverse weather and a leafhopper insect plague in Argentina's corn fields.
* Soybeans are up around 7.5% from this year's lows, with corn up around 16% and wheat up nearly 30%.
* Brazil's Conab revised its forecast for the country's 2023/24 soybean harvest by 1.16 million metric tons to 147.685 million tons despite flooding in Rio Grande do Sul, the second largest soy producing state.
* Cheap Brazilian supply continues to out-compete U.S. beans, putting downward pressure on Chicago futures prices.
* U.S. soybean processing slowed in April from a record crush in March due to narrowing margins and seasonal downtime at processing plants, analysts said ahead of a National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) monthly report on Wednesday.
* The Biden administration announced tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports but not on Chinese used cooking oil, disappointing traders who had bid up prices amid rumours that it would be included, leading to greater usage of U.S. soyoil to make renewable fuels.
* In wheat markets, Russia's nominee for agriculture minister said the country had lost crops sown on roughly 500,000 hectares this year due to bad weather but that Russia has sufficient resources to replant them.
* Dry weather and frosts have hit crops in southern Russia, forcing analysts to downgrade harvest estimates, but the latest weather forecasts tempered worries about crop losses and pulled prices back from a ten-month high.
* For corn, Conab increased its forecast for Brazil's 2023/24 production by around 670,000 tons to 111.636 million tons.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday confirmed private sales of 405,000 metric tons of U.S. corn to Mexico.
* Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT wheat, corn and soybean futures on Tuesday, traders said.
MARKETS NEWS
* MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe was set for a record high close on Tuesday, while the U.S. dollar edged lower as investors digested U.S. producer prices data and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
