GRAINS-Soybeans slip as ample supply outweighs hopes for China purchases

CANBERRA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures ceded some ground on Thursday, after rising 1.1% in the previous session when U.S. President Donald Trump said he would talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about U.S. exports of the oilseed to China.

Corn rose, while wheat was flat. Prices of all three grains were near multi-week lows due to plentiful global supply.

FUNDAMENTALS

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 was down 0.3% at $10.09-3/4 a bushel, as of 0101 GMT. Prices have spent the last year hovering around $10 after falling from highs of nearly $18 in 2022.

CBOT corn Cv1 was up 0.3% at $4.17-3/4 a bushel and wheat Wv1 was unchanged at $5.09-1/4 a bushel. Both contracts have also fallen sharply in the last three years.

Trump said on Wednesday that soybeans would be a major topic of discussion when he meets with the Chinese president in four weeks.

U.S. farmers have lost out on billions of dollars of sales to China, which is the biggest soy importer but hasn't yet bought beans from the autumn U.S. harvest amid a trade war with Washington.

China has instead ramped up soybean purchases from South America. Traders say it bought around 40 cargoes of Argentine soybeans last week during a brief export tax waiver.

South America's soybean production has expanded in recent years. Brokers StoneX said Brazil, the largest producer, will likely produce 178.6 million metric tons in the 2025/26 harvest.

In other crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's quarterly U.S. grain stocks estimates on Tuesday showed higher corn and wheat inventories than anticipated by analysts, weighing on prices.

The USDA also raised its estimate for U.S. wheat production to 1.985 billion bushels from 1.927 billion.

In Ukraine, a big grains exporter, the economy ministry increased its projection for the country's winter wheat sowing area by 9%, improving the production outlook.

MARKETS NEWS

U.S. stocks and the dollar treaded water in choppy trade on Wednesday, while gold struck a record high as the U.S. government shut down much of its operations, delaying the release of crucial jobs data which could muddy the interest rate outlook. MKTS/GLOB