CBOT wheat edges lower as traders eye Chinese demand

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed lower on Wednesday as market players assessed Chinese demand for American products amid an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries.

• CBOT March soft red winter wheat WH25 settled down 4-3/4 cents to $5.72-1/4 a bushel.

• K.C. March hard red winter wheat KWH25 ended down 3 cents at $5.91-3/4 per bushel.

• Minneapolis March spring wheat MWEH25 ended unchanged at $6.21-3/4 a bushel.

• In a sign of weak Chinese demand, trade sources told Reuters that China had delayed imports of up to 600,000 metric tons of mostly Australian wheat and offered some of these cargoes to other buyers.

• Agricultural markets had feared that tariffs proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump against Canada, Mexico and China could hurt demand for U.S. farm goods in a tit-for-tat trade battle.

• Trump on Monday postponed tariffs against Mexico and Canada for a month, while Beijing announced limited retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods on Tuesday that did not include crops.

• A softer dollar tends to make U.S. grains more competitive globally, and commodity funds hold a sizable net short position in CBOT wheat futures.