Wheat heads for fifth weekly fall as traders hope for demand

CANBERRA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures fell on Friday and were on track for a fifth consecutive weekly decline, but traders were hopeful that a large import tender by Saudi Arabia signalled a revival of demand that would put a floor under prices.

Corn futures also dipped and were set for a large weekly fall after the US Department of Agriculture said earlier in the week that US inventories were larger than analysts had expected.

Soybeans slipped amid pressure from the ongoing US harvest, which is expected to be the biggest on record. US farmers are also harvesting corn.

The most-traded wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.5% at $6.79-1/4 a bushel at 0523 GMT and 3.4% lower so far this week.

CBOT corn slipped 0.7% to $4.99 a bushel and 5.5% down over the week. Soybeans lost 0.6% to $12.76-3/4 a bushel and were down 3.2% from last week's close.

The US dollar has surged to its strongest in more than a year against a basket of major peers, making US crops less competitive on global export markets and pressuring CBOT prices. .DXY FRX/

Saudi Arabia on Thursday announced it is seeking to buy 535,000 metric tons of wheat for shipment in November and December.

Traders saw it as a sign that the recent price fall was stirring fresh demand after Saudi Arabia cancelled its previous wheat tender on September 7 because of high prices.

CBOT wheat rallied to $7.76 a bushel in early September, the highest since February 2023, after Russia and Ukraine strangled one another's Black Sea exports, but fell back again on hopes for a diplomatic solution.

Both Ukraine and Russia are trying to ramp up exports via alternate routes, said Commonwealth Bank analyst Dennis Voznesenski, while other northern hemisphere exporters like Bulgaria and Romania have harvested crops and are exporting.

Still, Russia is the biggest wheat exporter, and consultancy Sovecon this week cut its Russian wheat export forecast for this season by 4.7 million tons to 36.7 million tons, saying it saw normal port operations in the Azov-Black Sea region resuming no earlier than 2027.

"If the Black Sea remains closed, it's a problem that will push up prices," Voznesenski said.