SINGAPORE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures ticked lower on Thursday, although the market hovered close to a two-month high scaled in the previous session as strong Chinese demand and Brazilian planting delays continue to support prices.
Wheat fell, giving up some of previous session's gains, while corn eased.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was 0.1% down at $13.64-3/4 a bushel, as of 0103 GMT, but not far from its highest since Sept. 6 at $13.84-1/2 a bushel reached on Wednesday.
* Wheat gave up 0.6% to $5.88-1/2 a bushel and corn dipped 0.3% to $4.74-3/4 a bushel.
* Chinese importers bought at least five more U.S. soybean cargoes on Wednesday in a second day of active buying after booking their largest purchases in months a day earlier.
* The purchases, containing some 300,000 metric tons of the oilseed, were for shipment from the U.S. Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest ports between December and March, they added.
* Chicago soybean futures slumped to a 22-month low in October on U.S. harvest pressure and weak export demand. But futures have been trending upward since, as erratic weather has caused problems in the world's No. 1 exporter Brazil and demand for U.S. cargoes underpinning the market.
* Wheat rallied on Wednesday on renewed concerns about the Black Sea export corridor after Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile damaged a Liberia-flagged civilian vessel entering a Black Sea port in the Odesa region.
* Heavy rains in recent weeks came too late for Argentina's wheat harvest, with the Rosario Grains exchange cutting its 2023/24 forecast by 0.8 million metric tons on Wednesday.
* The new forecast drops Argentina's estimated wheat harvest to 13.5 million tons, only slightly above the 11.5 million tons brought in during the 2022/23 season, which suffered the worst drought in the country's history.
* Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soybean, soyoil, soymeal and wheat futures contracts on Wednesday, traders said.
MARKET NEWS
* World stock markets sputtered on Wednesday and the dollar eased as some investors accepted the notion that interest rates will stay higher for longer even though the U.S. Federal Reserve may have halted hiking them.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0130 China PPI, CPI YY Oct 0800 EU EU finance ministers meet likely to continue discussions of changes to the EU debt and deficit rules 1330 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
