GRAINS-Corn, wheat futures ease amid trade war jitters

By Heather Schlitz

CHICAGO, March 14 (Reuters) - Chicago corn futures ticked lower on Friday as concerns over trade conflicts disrupting trade flows and abundant South American supplies weighed on prices, analysts said.

Soy edged up in a choppy trade, and wheat eased, though expectations of lower wheat exports from Russia have kept a bottom on prices.

Grain markets faced pressure this week following the implementation of revised U.S. tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, which prompted the European Union and Canada to announce retaliatory duties on several U.S. goods.

"It's a lot of choppiness," Dan Basse, president of AgResource, said. "We can't sustain a trend not knowing what the next big tariff headline will be, and people are not willing to take on any risk."

Chicago Board of Trade most-active corn Cv1 lost 7-1/2 cents to $4.57-3/4 a bushel as of 12:00 CT (1700 GMT), with pressure also coming from index funds liquidating their long positions, Basse said.

Wheat Wv1 shed 5-3/4 cents to $5.56-3/4 a bushel and most-active soybean contract Sv1 was last up 4 cents to $10.14-1/2 per bushel.

Lower estimates for corn and soy production in key supplier Argentina may have lent some support to corn and soy prices, though a massive soy harvest in Brazil will likely continue to pressure prices, analysts said.

Russia's IKAR consultancy said on Thursday that it had cut its baseline 2024/25 wheat export forecast to around 41 million tons from 42.5 million tons.

Low U.S. wheat prices and an ongoing export quota in major wheat producer Russia have boosted buying interest in U.S. wheat.

"U.S. wheat is the cheapest in the world and priced under the Black Sea, and we're seeing an increase in sales," Basse said.