CANBERRA, May 3 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean and corn futures were set on Friday for their second straight weekly gains as floods disrupted harvesting in Brazil, the world's biggest exporter, and a leafhopper insect plague led to further downgrades for Argentina's corn crop.
Wheat futures climbed, although were set for a weekly fall as traders moderated their concerns that dry weather in Russia and the United States would hit yields and supply.
Supporting grains was a weakening in the dollar that has made U.S. farm goods more affordable for buyers with other currencies.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.1% at $12.00-1/4 a bushel, as of 0103 GMT, building on Thursday's gains and reaching its highest level since April 1. It was headed for a nearly 2% weekly gain.
* CBOT corn rose 0.5% to $4.62 a bushel, its highest since Jan. 10, and has so far gained 2.7% from last Friday's close.
* Wheat climbed 0.6% to $6.07-3/4 a bushel, but was down 2.3% for the week.
* All three contracts remain close to four-year lows reached earlier this year amid plentiful supply, and speculators are still betting on lower prices.
* Torrential rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's second-largest soybean and sixth-largest corn state, is disrupting the final stages of the harvest.
* Meanwhile, Argentina's Buenos Aires grains exchange slashed its estimate for the 2023/24 corn harvest by 3 millions metric tons to 46.5 tons due to leafhopper insects and adverse weather.
* That means the harvest, once expected to be a record, will end as one of the lowest in the past seven years, though near-freezing temperatures in the coming days should help against the leafhoppers.
* Argentina is the world's no. 3 corn exporter.
* Ukraine, a major exporter of corn and wheat, said the impact of war meant its corn exports could fall to 20 million-21 million tons in the 2024/25 July-June season from 27 million tons in 2023/24 and wheat exports could fall to 14 million tons from 18 million.
* A Russian ballistic missile struck a postal depot in the port city of Odesa late Wednesday, the third missile attack on the city in as many days, Ukrainian officials said.
* Dry weather continues to threaten wheat yields in southern Russia and parts of the U.S. wheat belt, but traders don't yet anticipate a major hit to global supply.
MARKETS NEWS
* Global stocks climbed on Thursday after the Federal Reserve indicated it was leaning toward a dovish stance, while the dollar retreated against the yen after another suspected round of intervention by the Bank of Japan.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
