CHICAGO, May 23 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures stagnated on Thursday following a 10-month peak a day earlier, though lingering dryness and worries over the Black Sea crop continued to underpin the market.
Reduced forecasts for Russia's wheat production fuelled a steep rally this month, while also drawing attention to adverse weather in other major producers like Ukraine, Australia and France.
"The rally is running out on wheat. We've got the Russian weather fully priced in now," said Joe Davis, trader at Futures International.
The most-active CBOT wheat contract was down 1/2 cent at $6.92-1/2 a bushel by 1629 GMT after climbing to its highest point since July during the previous session.
CBOT corn added 4-1/4 cents at $4.65-1/2 a bushel, while soybeans edged down 6cents to $12.40-1/4 a bushel.
Soy slipped on technical trading, while corn gained support from an uptick in demand, traders said.
The recent surge in wheat prices increased its premium over corn, encouraging some profit-taking in wheat since Wednesday as traders anticipated some livestock feed demand shifting to corn.
"It's technical trading on corn and beans, and corn is holding a bullish pattern," Davis said.
Corn futures were also supported by doubts over South American production. The soybean harvest in Brazil may also be curbed by flooding in the far south, though national production is set to remain high.
Faster-than-expected planting progress in the U.S. is keeping a lid on corn and soybean prices, supporting expectations of ample global supply for both crops, traders said.
Export sales of U.S. corn for the week ending May 16 were in line with analyst estimates, while new-crop U.S. wheat and old-crop U.S. soy export sales fell on the low end of analyst estimates. (Reporting by Heather Schlitz in Chicago. Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Alexandra Hudson and Arun Koyyur)
