CHICAGO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - U.S. corn and soybean futures fell on Monday on a technical setback as concerns about the spread of Omicron coronavirus variant caused investors to take some risks out of the market, traders said.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday afternoon that showed large speculators cut their net longs in both commodities added pressure.
Some profit taking also was noted after grains and oilseed rallied on Friday.
"We are leaning lower after the strength we saw last week," said Ted Seifried, chief agriculture strategist with the Zaner Group in Chicago. "We saw the funds had gotten out of a fair amount of their positions."
Wheat futures steadied, with signs of strong demand on the export market underpinning prices and sparking a round of bargain buying on market dips.
At 11:14 a.m. CST (1714 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade January soybean futures were down 10-3/4 cents at $12.56-1/2 a bushel. CBOT March corn was 5 cents lower at $5.79.
CBOT March soft red winter wheat was 1/4 cent higher to $8.03-3/4 a bushel after finding support at its session low of $7.89-1/2.
Saudi Arabia's main state wheat buying agency, the Saudi Grains Organization, purchased an estimated 689,000 tonnes of wheat in an international tender, traders said. Additionally, Jordan issued a tender to buy 120,000 tonnes of milling wheat that can be sourced from optional origins.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that export inspections of wheat totaled 245,963 tonnes in the week ended Dec. 2, in line with market expectations. USDA also upwardly revised its wheat inspections total for the prior week to 390,771 tonnes from 250,651 tonnes. (Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore, Editing by Will Dunham and Amy Caren Daniel)
