Grains-Wheat holds gains after Black Sea port attack

• The most-traded wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 was flat at $6.53 a bushel, as of 0045 GMT, after rising 3.6% in the previous session.
• CBOT corn Cv1 slipped 0.3% to $4.79-1/2 a bushel after surging 4.4% to a two-week high on Wednesday.
• Soybeans Sv1 were flat at $11.83-3/4 a bushel after rising 1.2% in the previous session.
• Wheat is up nearly 30% so far this year following drought that damaged U.S. winter wheat and attacks by Ukraine and Russia — two of the biggest global suppliers — on each other's export operations.
• A Ukrainian strike on Russia's Novorossiysk port city forced two major grain terminals to halt operations on Wednesday.
• Weeks of attacks have reduced shipments by both nations and left them scrambling to redirect exports to alternative routes.

• Elsewhere, the USDA said U.S. farmers would harvest their second-largest corn crop on record this autumn as lower yields were more than offset by larger plantings.
• The USDA also forecast strong corn demand and reduced its prediction for end-of-season U.S. stocks to 1.653 billion bushels from 1.790 billion bushels.
• The department also trimmed its U.S. soybean yield estimate but said production would be slightly higher than it previously thought.

Global equities were higher on Wednesday after mild inflation data reinforced bets the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady, while oil prices remained elevated as investors balanced lower demand against a deadlock in U.S.-Iran talks.