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Expectations of hefty supplies, weak demand cap gains
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Month-old USDA report reinforces bearish market sentiment
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EU weather damage to wheat crop gives Chicago futures a boost
(Updates throughout with analyst quotes, bullet points; adds market prices at 1707 GMT; changes dateline from SINGAPORE/PARIS)
By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soybean and corn futures turned lower on Thursday as hefty global supplies continued to weigh on prices, while wheat futures ticked up as weather damage hurt crops in the European Union.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) added 0.14% to $5.39 a bushel by 1707 GMT. Soybeans were 0.59% lower at $10.12-3/4 a bushel while corn fell 0.44% to $3.99 a bushel.
Soybean and corn futures saw a day of relatively low volume trading, as a bearish sentiment continues to overshadow the market as U.S. farmers scramble to sell their old crop.
Some traders spent the morning shoring up their positions ahead of Monday's global supply-and-demand report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which many traders expect to forecast a massive U.S. harvest this fall even as Chinese demand this summer has cooled.
This over-supply perspective was reinforced early on Thursday, when traders began circulating a month-old USDA research report about flood damage to Midwestern cropland - which sent corn and soybean falling as the damaged area appeared small, three market analysts told Reuters.
The 14-page document from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service's disaster monitoring team assessed damage to a small section of northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota, and southeast South Dakota cropland that experienced heavy rainfall in late June.
The report stated that, in this area, an estimated 70,000 corn acres and 46,000 soybean acres were affected.
"Clearly, there is not a lot of fresh news right now," said AgResource economist Dan Basse.
Soyoil futures rallied early in the day, after Reuters reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers amid industry concerns that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government subsidies.
But soyoil contracts later turned lower, following corn and soybeans. (Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral and Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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