GRAINS-Wheat pauses after two-day slide

By Gus Trompiz and Naveen Thukral

PARIS/SINGAPORE, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures were little changed on Tuesday, steadying after a two-day slide to contract lows.

Signs of fresh demand from wheat importers helped the market find a footing but offers in a tender by Egypt confirmed stiff competition from Black Sea suppliers like Russia.

Soybean prices edged lower after climbing on Monday to their highest since Nov. 9, with forecasts calling for some rain in Argentina tempering concerns about dry weather in the South American exporting country.

Corn also ticked lower.

The Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat contract was 0.1 percent higher by the end of the overnight session at $4.28-3/4 a bushel, holding above Monday's contract low of $4.27-1/2.

"We have had two pretty miserable days for wheat trading," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.

"Fundamentally nothing has changed, every year production is hitting record highs. We are not going to see higher prices in such an environment."

The price drop since Friday spurred importers like Algeria and Egypt to issue tenders but any demand boost to U.S. wheat was limited by cheaper competition from Russian wheat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday reported weekly wheat export inspections of 344,721 tonnes, in line with estimates for 200,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes.

U.S. wheat export inspections are down 5.9 percent so far in this marketing year compared with 2016/17.

CBOT soybeans eased 0.5 percent to $9.91-1/4 a bushel after failing to reach the $10 threshold, while corn gave up 0.3 percent to $3.50-3/4 a bushel.

Below-average rain in the first two weeks of December will complicate planting of late-sown corn and soybeans in most of Argentina's central grains belt, meteorologists told Reuters on Monday.

Forecasts called for scattered rain in parts of Argentina in the week ahead, although models differed as to the amount and there was a risk of moisture declining again next week, the Commodity Weather Group said in a note. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Joseph Radford and Mark Potter)

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