SINGAPORE, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures gained more ground on Monday, with prices underpinned by concerns over lacklustre production in key Southern Hemisphere suppliers such as Australia and Argentina.
Corn slid, while soybeans were flat as prices of both crops remained under pressure from U.S. harvest and South American supplies.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.4% at $5.81-3/4 a bushel, as of 0027 GMT. Corn fell 0.1% to $4.77 a bushel and soybeans were down quarter of a cent at $12.96 a bushel.
* Droughts in Argentina and Australia are expected to tighten world wheat supplies later in the season, while the Ukraine war remained a risk to Black Sea trade.
* Australia's wheat production is likely to decline further as hot and dry weather in September, a crucial month for crop development, curbs yields.
* Argentina's sales of the upcoming wheat crop are the slowest in seven years, delayed by farmers waiting for heavier rainfall and gambling on the result of the country's Oct. 22 presidential election, with some candidates pledging tax cuts on grains exports.
* Ukraine is trying to resume loading of a Black Sea export route despite Russia's withdrawal from a previous grain export deal.
* The first big ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port has set sail since Moscow quit a deal in July to allow exports, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister said on Friday, part of Kyiv's campaign to break Russia's de facto blockade.
* However, Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that while Moscow does not reject U.N. efforts to revive a Black Sea grain deal, a recent proposal was unrealistic.
* The deal - brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July 2022 - offered a small reprieve in the food crisis by allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain and bringing down global prices, but Russia quit the two months ago, complaining that not enough was being done to improve its own exports.
* Freshly harvested U.S. corn and soybeans were adding to ample South American supplies, though doubts lingered over U.S. yield potential following dry weather in the Midwest this spring, while farmers in Brazil are facing dry planting conditions.
* Large speculators increased their net short position in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures in the week ended Sept. 19, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
* The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans.
MARKET NEWS
* Treasury prices rebounded, but a gauge of global equities fell on Friday, adding to sharp sell-offs earlier this week, after three Federal Reserve officials warned further rate hikes may be needed to ensure inflation is brought under control.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT, Sept) 0800 Germany Ifo Business Climate New 0800 Germany Ifo Curr Conditions New 0800 Germany Ifo Expectations New (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
