GRAINS-Soybeans up for 2nd session on U.S. crop concerns, corn firms
SINGAPORE, July 8 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures gained more ground on Thursday as concerns over declining condition of the U.S. crop underpinned prices.
Corn rose for the first time in four sessions, while wheat eased.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.2% to $13.30 a bushel, as of 0100 GMT.
* Corn climbed 0.4% to $5.33 a bushel and wheat slid 0.2% to $6.21 a bushel.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a weekly report, surprised the market by lowering its good-to-excellent rating for the nation's soybean crop to 59% from 60%.
* Protests by workers in Argentina's key grains hub Rosario have snarled exports with roads blocked at some of the area's key ports, an industry official told Reuters on Wednesday.
* The protest of construction workers began late on Tuesday and on Wednesday spread to the entire districts of Puerto General San Martín and Timbúes, north of Rosario, affecting shipments of one of the world's largest food exporters.
* In China, farmers have sharply increased corn planting in a trend that is likely to cool the country's recent rampant appetite for imports.
* Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT soybean, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Wednesday, and net sellers of corn and wheat contracts, traders said.
MARKET NEWS
* U.S. Treasuries prices maintained gains on Wednesday, holding down yields, and two stock indexes notched record highs after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting largely confirmed market expectations. The dollar remained firm.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1200 Brazil IPCA Inflation Index MM June
1230 US Initial Jobless Claim weekly (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
