Wheat slips

SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat slid 1.1 percent on Friday, falling for a second day and set for its first weekly loss in three as abundant global supplies weighed on the market.

Corn lost more ground and soybeans also edged lower, adding to last session´s deep declines for both grains.

"We have got to a point with wheat that there has been quite a bit of short-covering and the market was overdue for a correction," said one Australia-based commodities analyst.

"Financial flow has to be supported by fundamentals at some point. There is no problem with supplies, production is good everywhere. There is five percent downside to the wheat market in the next one week or so." The Chicago Board Of Trade most-active wheat contract is down nearly 1.4 percent this week, after climbing almost seven percent in the last two weeks. The market hit a high of 4.64-1/4 a bushel on Thursday, strongest since June 28. Corn is down just over 1 percent for the week, heading for its first weekly fall in three.

Soybeans have given up almost 2 percent after gaining more than 3 percent last week.

Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT soybean, corn, soymeal and wheat futures contracts on Thursday, traders said.

Concern that the overall grains market may be top-heavy appeared to be triggering the general sell-off, with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission set to release its weekly Commitments of Traders report on Friday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported export sales of U.S. old-crop wheat in the latest week at 569,100 tonnes, above trade expectations for 300,000 to 500,000 tonnes.