CHICAGO, July 21 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures dropped on Friday, with traders locking in profits from a rally sparked by escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war that raised the prospects of export disruptions from those two key global suppliers.
Corn futures also were weaker, pressured by forecasts that showed more rain and cooler temperatures in the outlook for the U.S. Midwest next week.
Soybean futures were steady to firm as the Midwest weather outlook for August, the critical month for development of the oilseed in that region, was still murky.
"We are in the mode where we are going to go forecast to forecast to forecast," said Scott Harms, agricultural risk specialist at Archer Financial Services. "If it is a little cooler and wetter, the market is going to back up a touch."
At 10:18 a.m. CDT (1518 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat for September delivery was down 24-1/2 cents at $7.02-1/2 a bushel. The contract was on track for a weekly gain of 6.4%.
"There has certainly been a lot of panicking ... on global markets this week. Now people are looking at numbers again, and if you look at Russia's large crop and the good harvests in France and elsewhere in the EU, it doesn't seem like there is going to be a wheat shortage problem," a French trader said.
The number of ships looking to pick up grain cargoes from the Black Sea area has fallen 35% this week versus the previous week, with growing uncertainty over whether commercial traffic could be hit as Russia continues to attack food facilities in Ukraine.
CBOT December corn futures were off 6-1/2 cents at $5.39-3/4 a bushel and CBOT November soybean futures were down 1 cent at $14.03-3/4 a bushel. (Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Sinagpore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Subhranshu Sahu, Elaine Hardcastle and Paul Simao)
