Wheat heads for weekly loss on ample supply
CANBERRA, July 25 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures edged lower on Friday and were set to end the week down 1.1% as plentiful global supply from ongoing northern hemisphere harvests outweighed strong U.S. exports.
Corn futures were unchanged after U.S. export sales triggered a round of short-covering in the previous session but headed for a 1.7% weekly fall amid expectations of a large U.S. harvest.
Soybeans slipped 1.3% for the week as U.S. weekly export sales came in at the lower end of trade estimates.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.1% at $5.40-3/4 a bushel at 0700 GMT, with CBOT corn flat at $4.20-3/4 a bushel and soybeans 0.1% lower at $10.23 a bushel.
Net U.S. wheat export sales for the week ended July 17 came in at 712,000 metric tons, at the high end of a range of trade estimates.
U.S. wheat is now cheaper than wheat from Europe or top exporter Russia, where a large harvest is beginning to flow into the market. CBOT wheat slipped to a five-year low of $5.06-1/4 in May.
Scouts on an annual North Dakota crop tour projected hard red spring wheat yields in the top-producing state will average 49.0 bushels per acre, down from a record 54.5 bpa last year.
Those yield numbers remain above the five-year average, said Rabobank analyst Vitor Pistoia. "There'll still be a solid crop coming from that region," he said.
Given that the northern hemisphere is deep into harvest season, "it's very unlikely that something will change with the supply outlook," Pistoia said, adding that plentiful corn supply and low corn prices are also weighing on wheat.
"No one's expecting upside."
In corn, the USDA on Thursday reported sales of 135,000 tons to South Korea and 284,196 tons to unknown destinations.
Soybeans faced some spillover pressure from weakness in the CBOT soymeal market on Thursday after news that Chinese buyers bought more meal from Argentina, though prices regained some ground on Friday.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
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