GRAINS-Wheat steady after strong gains on Russia supply fears

By Colin Packham
SYDNEY, Sept 7 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat was steady on Friday
after strong gains in the previous session on fears that Russia,
the world's fourth largest exporter of the grain, could soon
exhaust its supplies.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Chicago Board of Trade December wheat fell slightly
to $8.91-1/4 a bushel, having jumped 2.77 percent in the
previous session. New-crop wheat remains on track to end the
week up 0.14 percent in its second weekly rise.
* November soybeans dropped 0.2 percent to $17.43 a
bushel after closing down slightly. The oilseed is down 0.74
percent so far this week, set for its first slide in six weeks.
* December corn lost 0.19 percent to $7.97 a bushel,
having closed up 0.98 percent. It is likely to mark its second
consecutive weekly fall as it is down 0.28 percent so far this
week.
* A purchase of 475,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia, Romania
and Ukraine by Egypt's main state-run wheat buyer, spurred talk
that Russia would exhaust supplies soon.
* Russia has repeatedly denied that it would ban exports --
as it did in 2010 after a historic drought -- due to a poor crop
this year.
* Leading Russian grain analyst Dmitry Rylko, head of the
Institute for Agriculture Market Studies told, a conference in
Moscow that Russia could import as much as 2.5 million tonnes of
wheat from neighbor Kazakhstan.
* Speculation that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will
raise its estimate of the soybean yield in its next update on
the crop on Sept. 12 due to rains in recent weeks, has helped
support the crop.
* Closely-followed trade house INTL FC Stone on Wednesday
pegged the 2012 U.S. soybean crop at 2.739 billion bushels,
above the U.S. government's forecast for 2.692 billion. However,
the firm pegged corn output at 10.607 billion bushels, below the
government forecast for 10.779 billion.
* A large sale of U.S. corn totaling over 200,00 tonnes to
an unknown destination as reported by the USDA also helped
support prices. Export demand had been dented by prices rising
to record highs this summer.

MARKET NEWS
* The euro and commodity currencies like the Australian
dollar held onto gains in Asia on Friday, while the safe-haven
yen nursed heavy losses as markets cheered the European Central
Bank's plan to tackle the region's debt crisis.
* Oil prices settled higher but well off the day's peaks on
Thursday, supported by a drop in U.S. crude oil inventories,
strong jobs data and the ECB announcement.
* U.S. stocks closed at multi-year highs on Thursday, with
the S&P 500 ending at its highest level since before the
collapse of Lehman Brothers.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1000 Germany Industrial output
1230 U.S. Nonfarm payrolls
1930 U.S. CFTC commitment of traders data

Grains prices at 0028 GMT
Contract Last Change Pct chg Two-day chg MA 30 RSI
CBOT wheat 891.25 -0.50 -0.06% +2.71% 897.84 47
CBOT corn 797.00 -1.50 -0.19% +0.79% 806.70 43
CBOT soy 1743.50 -3.50 -0.20% -0.23% 1672.72 51
CBOT rice $14.70 $0.07 +0.48% -1.51% $15.70 14
WTI crude $94.70 -$0.83 -0.87% -0.69% $93.82 45
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.263 $0.000 +0.02% +0.25%
USD/AUD 1.029 0.001 +0.08% +0.96%
Most active contracts
Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight
RSI 14, exponential

(Editing by Joseph Radford)