CANBERRA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Chicago corn futures on Monday hovered near a three-year low hit in the previous session as the market absorbed last week's U.S government forecast that farmers will produce the biggest corn crop on record this year.
Soybean prices rose, while wheat eased.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.2% at $4.63-1/4 a bushel by 0116 GMT after slumping to $4.62 on Friday, the lowest since December 2020.
* Wheat fell 0.5% to $5.72-1/4 a bushel and soybeans rose 0.5% to $13.54-1/2 a bushel.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week raised its U.S. 2023-24 corn production estimate to 15.234 billion bushels from 15.064 billion. The size of the upgrade surprised analysts.
* Top exporter Brazil also grew a record amount of corn this year, and the global market, tight for years, now stands on the verge of a surplus.
* CBOT corn has fallen around 32% so far in 2023 and is headed for the biggest yearly decline in prices in a decade.
* A lack of rainfall in Brazil's top grain state Mato Grosso is, however, compromising the outlook for the country's second corn crop, farmers said.
* Brazilian crop agency Conab forecasts total corn production in the 2023/24 cycle of around 119 million tons, down 9.6% from its previous season.
* In soybeans, the USDA lifted its forecast for U.S. production to 4.129 billion bushels from 4.104 billion bushels.
* As with corn, Brazil is delivering a record soybean harvest this year, pressuring prices.
* But low rainfall Mato Grosso has delayed soybean planting by up to 30 days and forced replanting in some areas, curtailing yield potential, farmers said.
* Despite the weather, Conab last week raised its forecast for Brazilian soybean production to 162.420 million tons.
* Moving to wheat, the USDA last week raised its forecast for Russia's wheat crop this year by 5 million tons to about 90 million tons and pegged global ending stocks above expectations.
* Traders were monitoring ongoing rainfall in France where grain sowings further slowed last week and are now running well behind last year.
* French farmers had sown 67% of the expected soft wheat area for next year's harvest by Nov. 6, up from a revised estimate of 61% a week earlier, farm office FranceAgriMer said.
* Ukraine has harvested 71.5 million metric tons of grain and oilseeds from the new 2023 harvest so far, its agriculture ministry said.
* Commodity funds were net sellers of Chicago corn, wheat and soymeal futures on Friday and net buyers of soybeans and soyoil, traders said.
MARKETS NEWS
The dollar eased and global equities rebounded on Friday as Wall Street rallied on doubts that interest rates will go higher even after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that tighter monetary policy might be needed to tame inflation.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
