CIF/FOB Gulf Grain-Corn, soybean barge bids mostly steady

CHICAGO, July 9 (Reuters) - Basis bids for corn and soybeans delivered by barge to U.S. Gulf Coast terminals were mostly steady on Wednesday as market players awaited direction following this week's drop in Chicago Board of Trade futures, traders said.

• Grain sales by farmers slowed as futures prices declined, curbing the movement of crops toward Gulf exporters and keeping a floor under CIF barge bids.

• CIF corn barges loaded in July were bid at 88 cents over Chicago Board of Trade September CU25 futures, unchanged from Tuesday. August corn barges were also bid at 88 cents over futures, up 1 cent.

• FOB export premiums for corn shipped from the Gulf in August held steady at 94 cents over September futures.

• For soybeans, CIF July barges were bid at 86 cents over CBOT August SQ25 futures and August soy barges were bid at 88 cents over futures, both unchanged from a day earlier.

• FOB export premiums for soybeans shipped from the Gulf in August were flat at around 85 cents over August SQ25 futures.

• Ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report on Thursday, analysts expected the government to report export sales of old-crop corn in the week ended July 3 at 375,000 to 900,000 metric tons and new-crop corn sales at 150,000 to 700,000 tons.

• Analysts estimated weekly sales of old-crop soybeans at 300,000 to 600,000 tons and new-crop soybean sales at 50,000 to 400,000 tons. They estimated export sales of U.S. 2025/26 wheat at 200,000 to 600,000 tons.

• Market participants also await the USDA's monthly supply/demand and crop production reports due on Friday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the agency to lower its forecast of U.S. corn stocks left at the end of the 2025/26 marketing year due to brisk export demand for the yellow grain.

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