By Luzi Ann Javier Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans and corn, little changed, may drop for a second day as a rising dollar made U.S. supplies more expensive for buyers and investors holding other currencies, and as favorable weather aided crop prospects in Argentina. Soybeans for May delivery were little changed at $9.6025 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:24 p.m. Singapore time, after losing 0.3 percent earlier. May-delivery corn was unchanged at $3.7175 a bushel, after losing 0.4 percent earlier. A strengthening dollar “will certainly be bearish for the commodity markets,” Michael Pitts, commodity sales director at National Australia Bank, said from Sydney. “Any favorable weather is just going to mean larger crops out of South America and that’s going to create a lot of pressure on U.S. exports.” The dollar gained for a second day against a basket of six major currencies including the yen and the euro on signs the U.S. economy is gaining momentum. The U.S. accounts for 36 percent of global soybean output and 42 percent of corn production, making it the biggest grower and exporter of both crops, according to estimates from the country’s Department of Agriculture. The USDA on Feb.9 raised its estimate for Argentina’s corn exports to 9.5 million tons, from 7.5 million tons forecast in January, lifting the country’s ranking to the second-biggest exporter from third-biggest in January. Argentina was forecast to have scattered showers and thunderstorms in major growing areas today, boosting crop development, agricultural information provider Telvent DTN Inc. said yesterday. Japan, the biggest corn importer, boosted its purchases of the grain from Argentina and Brazil on concern the quality of U.S. supplies may have deteriorated, Nobuyuki Chino, president of Unipac Grain Ltd. in Tokyo said in an interview yesterday. Brazilian Shipments Purchases from Brazil for shipment between January and June have risen to 500,000 tons, more than 10 times the volume sought in 2009, while orders from Argentina have reached 100,000 tons, close to the full year shipments posted last year, Chino said. Imports from South American countries may rise 1.2 million tons this year, “if their prices are competitive with the U.S.,” Chino said. Japanese buyers are also concerned that U.S. supplies may be contaminated with deoxynivalenol, a harmful mycotoxin produced by fusarium molds, said Chino, who has traded grains for three decades and worked for Continental Grain Co. of the U.S. before establishing his company in 1999. Vomitoxin, a type of mold that develops during wet harvest seasons, has appeared in corn samples from eastern Nebraska to Ohio, in “one of the worst outbreaks in the past 20 years,” Brian Richert, a Purdue University swine specialist in West Lafayette, Indiana said Nov. 16. The mold can lead animals to eat less or not at all at levels of more than 2 parts per million in hog feed to about 10 parts per million in grain for cattle, Richert said. Vomitoxin is a type of mycotoxin. Wheat for May delivery was unchanged at $5.0925 a bushel after declining as much as 0.7 percent earlier. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net

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