GRAINS-Soybeans rise to June 2024 high as China buys US beans

CANBERRA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures edged lower on Tuesday, after reaching their highest level since June last year earlier in the session on China's purchases of U.S. beans.

Wheat also rose to a multi-month high before trading lower, while corn futures fell.

FUNDAMENTALS

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 was down 0.3% at $11.53-1/2 a bushel, as of 0203 GMT, after reaching $11.60-1/2 in early trading.

CBOT wheat Wv1 fell 0.5% to $5.55-3/4 a bushel after rising to $5.61-1/4 earlier in the day, its highest since July.

Corn Cv1 slipped 0.2% to $4.34 a bushel but remained near last week's peak of $4.42-3/4, the highest since June.

China's state-owned grain trader COFCO bought at least 14 cargoes of U.S. soybeans on Monday - around 840,000 metric tons - for shipment in December and January, two traders with knowledge of the deals told Reuters.

China has largely shunned U.S. soybeans this season due to a trade war with Washington. Monday's purchases were China's largest from the United States since a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last month.

The White House said China had agreed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans this year, but only a small volume of sales had occurred before Monday.

China has already bought huge quantities of soy from South America and is oversupplied, curbing prospects for U.S. purchases.

In other demand news, the U.S. soybean crush topped all trade forecasts and hit a record high in October, according to a monthly National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) report.

Ample global supply still weighs on soybeans, corn and wheat. Soybean and corn prices took a hit on Friday when the U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced its U.S. harvest estimates by a smaller amount than many analysts had expected.

The USDA also trimmed its U.S. soybean export estimate for the current crop season, and some analysts said the number still looked too high.

Commodity funds were large net buyers of CBOT soybeans, wheat and corn on Monday, traders said.

MARKETS NEWS

Asian stocks slid in early trade, as financial markets waited on a rush of key U.S economic data delayed by the government shutdown while investors rolled back bets of a Federal Reserve rate cut next month. MKTS/GLOB