GRAINS-Soybeans hold firm as China books more U.S. supplies

Reuters01-06
GRAINS-Soybeans hold firm as China books more U.S. supplies

Updates with European trading, changes dateline

BEIJING/PARIS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures inched up on Tuesday to hold on to gains from the previous session as news of more purchases of U.S. supplies by China helped underpin prices.

Corn and wheat ticked down, pausing after they rebounded on Monday like soybeans from multi-week lows.

The most-active soybean contract Sv1 on the Chicago Board of Trade added 0.1% to $10.63 a bushel. On Monday, the benchmark had climbed 1.6% in a recovery from a two-month low struck on Friday.

Bargain-buying by investors returning from year-end holidays was encouraged by market talk that China had booked more U.S. soybeans as it follows up on a pledge to resume purchases under a bilateral trade truce with Washington.

Traders said that China's state stockpiler Sinograin bought 10 U.S. soybean cargoes this week, representing around 600,000 metric tons.

The talk of fresh Chinese buying, together with a rebound in crude oil LCOc1, has helped drive soybean prices higher at the start of this week, CM Navigator analyst Donatas Jankauskas said in a note.

CBOT corn Cv1 edged down 0.1% to $4.44-1/4 a bushel, while CBOT wheat Wv1 also eased 0.1% to $5.12 a bushel. Last Friday, wheat reached its lowest since late October, while corn hit a two-week low.

Brisk corn exports and dryness in U.S. winter wheat belts were supporting the cereal markets.

"Pockets of dryness in the U.S. Plains lent support to wheat," said Josh Lawrence, advisory consultant at IKON Commodities. "Still, gains were limited by ample supplies from major exporting countries."

Traders were also monitoring the Black Sea export corridor. On Monday, Russia launched five missile strikes on Ukraine's Kharkiv, damaging energy infrastructure, and struck a vegetable oil facility owned by U.S. agricultural group Bunge BG.N in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukrainian officials said.

Grain markets are also watching investor flows linked to annual changes in the composition of commodity indexes, and looking ahead to supply and demand data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture next Monday.

Prices at 1140 GMT

Last

Change

Pct Move

CBOT wheat Wv1

512.00

-0.50

-0.10

CBOT corn Cv1

444.25

-0.25

-0.06

CBOT soy Sv1

1063.00

1.00

0.09

Paris wheat BL2c1

188.75

0.50

0.27

Paris maize EMAc1

188.25

0.50

0.27

Paris rapeseed COMc1

464.25

1.50

0.32

WTI crude oil CLc1

58.49

0.17

0.29

Euro/dollar EUR=

1.17

0.00

-0.09

Most active contracts - Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel, Paris futures in euros per metric ton

(Reporting by Ella Cao, Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson in Beijing and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Harikrishnan Nair and Shailesh Kuber)

((Ella.Cao@thomsonreuters.com;))

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