GRAINS-Soybeans fall further on concerns about pace of Chinese buying

CANBERRA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures extended declines to a fourth straight session on Wednesday, hitting six-week lows, amid doubts that China will buy enough U.S. beans to prevent prices from losing ground in a well supplied market.

Wheat futures continued its losing run to a fourth session after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) raised its estimates for global production and end-of-season inventories.

Corn eased after rising 1% on Tuesday, when the USDA said U.S. exports would be larger than it had previously projected, leaving behind smaller U.S. ending stocks.

FUNDAMENTALS

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 lost 0.2% to $10.84-3/4 a bushel by 0112 GMT, with CBOT wheat Wv1 dipping 0.1% to $5.33-3/4 a bushel and corn Cv1 shedding 0.1% to $4.47-1/2 a bushel.

Soybeans have fallen 7% from a 17-month high of $11.69-1/2 last month as optimism that China would quickly buy large quantities of U.S. soybeans faded.

The USDA has so far confirmed around 2.9 million tons of U.S. soybean sales to China. U.S. officials had said China would buy 12 million tons by year-end, but appeared to push back the deadline to the end of February 2026.

Year-to-date, U.S. soybeans exports to China, the biggest soy importer, remain far below year-ago levels. Despite the slow pace of Chinese purchases so far, the USDA left its U.S. export forecast unchanged on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, favourable weather is helping South American crops. The USDA retained its forecast of soybean production in Brazil, the world's biggest supplier, at a record-high 175 million metric tons.

The agency raised its wheat production estimates for countries including Canada, Argentina, Russia and Australia and lifted its forecast for global ending stocks by 3.4 million tons.

In India, abundant soil moisture is leading farmers to seed record amounts of land with crops such as wheat, rapeseed and chickpeas, which will likely raise production. India is the world's second-largest wheat producer.

Argentina said it would lower export taxes on crops including wheat, soybeans and corn, making them more competitive in the global export market.

MARKETS NEWS

Most major stock indexes dipped on Tuesday, while the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields edged higher before a likely interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve but also possibly hawkish comments from policymakers. MKTS/GLOB