Soybean futures end lower for third straight session; corn, wheat fall

USDA leaves US corn stocks unchanged, baffling traders

USDA reports US wheat inventories higher than trade expectations

Chinese demand a worry for US soy market

(Recasts to reflect market moves, updates headline, adds closing prices)

CHICAGO, March 11 (Reuters) – Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures ended lower on Tuesday for a third straight session, coming under pressure from hefty South American supplies hitting the global market and uncertainty over how U.S. tariffs will affect domestic demand, traders said.

Corn fell during a choppy trading session, after the federal government left domestic corn inventories unchanged in a monthly supply-and-demand report – despite strong export sales and trade tensions with top buyer Mexico.

Wheat futures ended lower after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported domestic and global wheat inventories were bigger than trade expectations.

The CBOT’s most-active wheat closed down 5-3/4 cents at $5.56-3/4 a bushel. Corn ended down 1-3/4 cents at $4.70-1/4 a bushel, while soybeans settled down 2-3/4 cents at $10.11-1/4 per bushel.

Weakness in the canola market weighed on soyoil prices, which also carried over to pressure soybean futures, traders said.

Traders and farmers are keeping a close eye on exports, with U.S. tariff disputes with major buyers Mexico, Canada and China threatening sales of U.S. agricultural goods. They said USDA likely held off on changes as it waits to see whether the U.S. implements fresh tariffs and how trading partners respond.

Fears that U.S. tariffs will hurt economic growth have unsettled financial markets, while grain investors are wary that China may shun U.S. soybeans altogether in favor of a bumper Brazilian crop.

With the tariff war roiling between the U.S. and China, “the question is, where are we going to sell the (U.S.) beans? No one knows,” said Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

For corn futures, some analysts were baffled why USDA kept the U.S. corn export forecast unchanged, given the current pace of sales.

“I get the whole conversation about trade and tariffs and the unknown,” said Angie Setzer, partner at Consus Ag. “But if all you can do is predict the futures based on normal market trends, as they have told me they do, I’m not sure how they can rationalize not making an adjustment at this point.” (Additional reporting by Tom Polansek and Heather Schlitz in Chicago, and Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Alan Barona, Janane Venkatraman, David Evans, Alison Williams and Rod Nickel)