PARIS/MANILA, June 29 (Reuters) - Chicago corn, wheat and soybean futures were little changed on Thursday, consolidating after a two-day slide triggered by improved rain prospects for parched Midwest crops, as attention turned to U.S. government planting and stocks data.
Forecasts pointing to ample rainfall in the heart of the Midwest in the coming two weeks kept a lid on corn and soybeans, while the onset of northern hemisphere harvests and export competition from Russia curbed wheat prices, analysts said.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.05% at $5.36-1/2 a bushel at 1122 GMT, after tumbling more than 4% in each of the two previous sessions.
CBOT soybeans inched down 0.12% to $12.63-1/2 a bushel while CBOT wheat edged 0.07% lower to $6.69-1/4 a bushel.
"Traders are likely to be more cautious today, ahead of an important USDA report on quarterly stocks and plantings," consultancy Agritel said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's acreage and quarterly stocks reports, due on Friday, are among the most closely watched publications in grain markets.
Weather charts projecting increasing precipitation in the Midwest led participants to look beyond USDA data on Monday showing the worst condition of U.S. soybean and corn crops in decades following drought.
"The corn trade continued to remove weather premium from prices off the conclusion that a growing list of scattered, repetitive, and limited rain events have improved the prospects of the crop," commodities research firm Hightower said in a report.
Traders are also awaiting the USDA's weekly export sales report later on Thursday for an update on overseas demand that has been tepid this month.
Wheat was under pressure on Thursday due to a higher-than-expected official estimate of Canadian planting and a trade estimate projecting Ukraine's harvest well above an official forecast and close to pre-war levels.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Vinay Dwivedi)
