GRAINS-Soy futures flat, headed for weekly loss after China buys Argentina crops

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures were unchanged on Friday, headed for a second weekly loss after China made large purchases of Argentine supplies this week at the expense of U.S. crops.

The market was unchanged after falling hard earlier this week on concerns about China's lack of demand for U.S. soybeans. Wheat and corn futures were trading lower.

After Buenos Aires briefly suspended grain export taxes this week, around 40 Argentine soybean cargoes were registered for export in November and December, mostly headed to China, two traders told Reuters. On Thursday, Argentina reinstated export taxes.

Still, the buying frenzy by Chinese importers was a fresh blow for U.S. soybean farmers, who have been shut out of exports to top market China during the current harvest season as trade war tariffs make their beans prohibitively expensive for Chinese buyers.

"That news has been digested and the taxes have been implemented, so soybeans should have seen the bulk of selling from that news item," said Brian Hoops, president of Midwest Market Solutions.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade Sv1 was unchanged at $10.12-1/4 a bushel by 12:25 p.m. CDT (1725 GMT).

When asked if China would purchase U.S. soybeans, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said Washington should remove what China described as unreasonable tariffs and create conditions to expand bilateral trade.

The advancing U.S. soy and corn harvests have put further supply pressure on prices, though doubts over the size of corn yields have lent support to that market.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is slated to issue a weekly update on harvesting progress on Monday.

"Corn is facing an active harvest weekend ahead with weather turning warmer and drier," Hoops said. "The window should be wide open for corn and soybean harvest."

CBOT wheat Wv1 was down 8 cents at $5.19 a bushel, and corn Cv1 dropped 4 cents to $4.21-3/4 a bushel.