CHICAGO, June 14 (Reuters) - U.S. corn futures and nearby soybean futures fell on Wednesday, backing down from multi-week highs, as traders weighed fears of flagging demand for grains and other commodities against worries about dry Midwest weather curbing crop prospects, traders said.
Wheat futures sagged on profit-taking after a four-session advance and seasonal pressure from the expanding U.S. winter wheat harvest.
As of 12:53 p.m. CDT (1753 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade July corn was down 6-1/4 cents at $6.06-1/4 per bushel, a day after reaching $6.25, its highest level since April 21.
July soybeans were down 12-3/4 cents at $13.86-1/2 a bushel, retreating from Tuesday's one-month high of $14.15-1/2. CBOT July wheat was down 6-1/2 cents at $6.29-3/4 a bushel.
Grain markets shrugged off support from a weaker dollar ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. Late in Wednesday's CBOT session, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged but signaled in new economic projections that borrowing costs will likely rise by another half of a percentage point by the end of this year.
"Commodity traders continue to fret that the Fed's rate hikes will drive our economy into a recession that will reduce demand for commodities," StoneX chief commodities economist Arlan Suderman wrote in a client note.
"Equity traders are increasingly convinced that we can avoid a significant recession, but commodity traders see nothing but poor demand," Suderman wrote.
Traders were monitoring headlines from war-torn Ukraine and the Black Sea grain export region. Russia's "goodwill" cannot last indefinitely when it comes to renewing the Black Sea grain deal, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, a day after President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was considering withdrawing from the accord.
Otherwise, fresh fundamental news was scarce. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said weekly production of corn-based ethanol fell in the latest week to 1.018 million barrels per day while stockpiles fell to 22.226 million barrels.
Agritel, a consultancy, cut its forecast for Romania's wheat harvest by 15% after a dry May strained crops in one of the European Union's biggest grain producers.
Farm office FranceAgriMer on Wednesday lowered by 100,000 tonnes its monthly forecast for French soft wheat exports outside the European Union in the 2022/23 season to 10.2 million tonnes, which would still be 16% above the previous season. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago Additional reporting by Matthew Chye in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris Editing by Rashmi Aich and Matthew Lewis)
