GRAINS-Soybeans fall on US harvest pressure, dismal exports prospects

SINGAPORE, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Chicago soybeans slid on Monday, starting the week on a bearish note as seasonal harvest pressure in the United States and China's absence from the market weighed on prices.

Corn futures also fell in early Asian trade, while wheat was largely unchanged.

FUNDAMENTALS

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 lost 0.1% to $10.13 a bushel by 0013 GMT, corn fell 0.1% to $4.21-1/2 a bushel and wheat Wv1 was flat at $5.19-3/4 a bushel.

U.S. soybean exporters are missing out on business to China amid a trade war between the two nations, with rival suppliers from Latin America taking their share.

After Buenos Aires briefly suspended grain export taxes last week, around 40 Argentine soybean cargoes were registered for export in November and December, mostly headed to China, two traders told Reuters. These purchases are directly eating into the prime U.S. marketing season.

The advancing U.S. soybean and corn harvests are likely to put further supply pressure on prices, though doubts over the size of corn yields have lent some support to that market in recent sessions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is slated to issue a weekly update on harvesting progress on Monday. On Tuesday, the agency is set to issue quarterly data on U.S. grain stocks.

Large speculators increased their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week to Sept. 23, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and soybeans.

MARKET NEWS

Gains in Wall Street indexes on Friday were not enough to erase a loss for the week while resilient consumer spending supported longer-dated Treasury yields and gold rose as a steady inflation reading supported bets on future Federal Reserve rate cuts. MKTS/GLOB

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0900 EU Consumer Confid. Final Sep