CIF/FOB Gulf Grain-Soybean, corn barge basis mostly flat

CHICAGO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Spot basis bids for soybeans and corn shipped by barge to U.S. Gulf Coast export terminals were mostly steady on Tuesday, traders said.

* Crop weather in Brazil, the world's biggest soybean exporter, looks nearly ideal, fueling expectations for a record harvest there, traders said.

* Brazil competes with the United States for soy export sales to China and other importers.

* Frequent rain will mostly benefit soy and corn crop yields in northern Brazil over the next two weeks, Commodity Weather Group said.

* In Argentina, another soy and corn exporter, dryness threatens a portion of the nation's grain belt, traders said.

* CIF soybean Gulf barges loaded in December were bid at 86 cents over Chicago Board of Trade January SF25 futures, unchanged from Tuesday.

* FOB export premiums for January soybean shipments were unchanged at about 108 cents over futures.

* CIF corn barges loaded in December were bid flat at 68 cents over CBOT March corn CH25 futures.

* FOB offers for corn shipped from the Gulf in January were unchanged at 86 cents over CBOT March futures.

* Chicago Board of Trade soy and corn futures finished higher. The market will be closed on Wednesday for Christmas.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Mark Porter)

((Thomas.Polansek@thomsonreuters.com))

For displays of CIF basis, click on the codes in brackets:
U.S. CIF Gulf soybeans GRYM
U.S. CIF Gulf corn GRYN
U.S. CIF Gulf SRW wheat GRYO
U.S. CIF Gulf HRW wheat GRYP
For displays of FOB basis, please click on the following codes in brackets:
U.S. FOB Gulf corn GRZC
U.S. FOB Gulf soybeans GRZD
U.S. FOB Gulf SRW wheat GRZE
U.S. FOB Gulf HRW wheat GRZF

LINKS Corn prices page:   cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=corn-cash-market
Wheat prices page:  cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=wheat-cash-market
U.S. barge freight                  BG/US
U.S. export sales estimates         USDA/EST
U.S. grain export summary           GRA/U
Brazil soybean export prices        SYBS
Brazil corn export prices           SYBX
Argentina grain prices              GRA/ARG
Russia grain prices                 GRA/RU