Soybeans hit 7-week low on dismal demand, harvest pressure

Chicago soybean futures slid for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, dropping to their lowest in seven weeks, as lacklustre demand for U.S. supplies and the harvest of a bumper crop pressured prices.

Corn lost more ground, while wheat slid to its lowest since mid-August after the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a quarterly report showing bigger-than-expected inventories.

FUNDAMENTALS

* The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade ZS1! slid 0.4% to $9.97-3/4 a bushel as of 0016 GMT, the weakest since August 12.

* Corn ZC1! gave up 0.3% to $4.14-1/4 a bushel and wheat ZW1! fell 0.3% to $5.06-1/2 a bushel, the lowest since August 14.

* A lack of export demand for soybeans has been the primary factor weighing on futures. U.S. soybean exporters are missing out on business to China amid a trade war between the two nations, with rival suppliers from South America taking their share.

* On the stocks front, U.S. farmers and grain handlers had 13% less corn in storage ahead of the autumn harvest than a year earlier, USDA data showed on Tuesday, although a record-large crop was set to replenish inventories.

* There were 1.532 billion bushels of corn in storage as of September 1, above analysts' expectations of 1.337 billion bushels.

* For wheat, stocks reached a five-year high of 2.120 billion bushels on September 1, up from 1.992 billion bushels a year earlier, according to the USDA. Analysts expected 2.043 billion bushels.

* Argentina is set to harvest a record corn crop in the 2025/26 season, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Tuesday, forecasting production in the world's third-largest exporter to total 58 million metric tons.

MARKET NEWS

* Caution took hold of world markets on Tuesday, with the dollar and equities gyrating in choppy trade and gold briefly hitting a record high on concerns that a likely U.S. government shutdown could delay key jobs data.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0030 Japan S&P Global Mfg PMI Final SA Sep

0600 UK Nationwide house price mm, yy Sep

0750 France HCOB Manufacturing PMI Sep

0755 Germany HCOB Mfg PMI Sep

0800 EU HCOB Mfg Final PMI Sep

0830 UK S&P Global Manufacturing PMI Sep

0900 EU HICP Flash YY Sep

0900 EU HICP-X,F,E,A,T Flash MM, YY Sep

1345 US S&P Global Mfg PMI Final Sep

1400 US ISM Manufacturing PMI Sep