SINGAPORE: Chicago soyabean futures edged lower on Friday, and were poised for their first weekly decline in five, on pressure from a US government forecast of higher production.

Wheat eased, while corn edged higher. “The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) supply-and-demand report on Thursday threw a wet blanket on US grain and oilseed markets, though there could be potential demand developments in store for both US corn and soyabeans,” Karen Braun, a market analyst for Reuters, wrote in a column.

The most-active soyabean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.1% at $13.41-3/4 a bushel, as of 0310 GMT. Wheat fell 0.1% to $5.80 a bushel and corn rose 0.1% to $4.68-1/2 a bushel.

For the week, soyabeans are down 0.8%, wheat has risen 1.3% and corn shed 1.8%.

The USDA raised its estimate for the nation’s 2023-24 corn crop to 15.234 billion bushels in a monthly report, from 15.064 billion bushels in October. It also increased its forecast for soyabean production to 4.129 billion bushels from its October estimate of 4.104 billion.

The report’s forecasts topped trade estimates. The soyabean market has received some support from strong Chinese demand in recent days.

China has purchased 1.04 million metric tons of US soyabeans in a significant deal that extends a wave of recent buying. Brazil, the world’s top soyabean grower and exporter, will produce an estimated 162.420 million tons of the oilseed in the 2023/24 cycle even as erratic weather disrupts some planting, crop agency Conab said in a new, higher forecast on Thursday.

Argentine farmers could plant more fields with soyabeans than initially estimated, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said on Thursday, as rains put an end to a drought that affected large parts of the agricultural heartlands.

Ukraine’s alternative Black Sea export corridor is working despite a recent Russian attack on a civilian vessel, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Thursday. Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT soyabean, corn, wheat and soyameal futures contracts on Thursday and net buyers of soyaoil futures, traders said.