US corn futures slipped on Friday while soyabeans and wheat edged higher in muted trading as investors waited for the US government's monthly update to harvest projections. Corn futures remained under pressure from profit-taking after prices jumped to a seven-week high on Tuesday. The market shrugged off long-awaited news that the Trump administration would boost US biofuels consumption starting next year. The new rules, which still must be finalized, "ensure that more than 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol be blended into the nation's fuel supply beginning in 2020," according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

At 11:02 a.m. CDT (1602 GMT), CBOT December corn futures were down 2 cents at $3.86-3/4 a bushel. CBOT November soyabean futures were up 4 cents at $9.15-3/4 a bushel but remained below the 10-week top hit on Tuesday. CBOT December wheat was 2-3/4 cents higher at $4.91-1/2 a bushel. Corn rallied early in the week after the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) lower than anticipated estimate for US inventories, which could herald tighter supplies if the Midwest harvest brings mixed yields.

Yields in this year's corn and soyabean harvests are seen as hard to call after exceptionally late planting during a rain-plagued spring. Private analytics firm IEG Vantage, formerly known as Informa Economics IEG, on Friday lowered its forecast of the average US 2019 corn yield to 167.5 bushels per acre, from 169.6 a month ago, according to an IEG client note seen by Reuters. IEG forecast the average US 2019 soyabean yield at 46.5 bushels per acre, down from 48.4 last month. The firm put soyabean production at 3.513 billion bushels, down from 3.671 billion bushels previously.

Copyright Reuters, 2019