GRAINS-Chicago soy, corn, wheat futures tumble on fears of tariff retaliation

BEIJING, April 3 (Reuters) - The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) saw declines in grain and soybean futures on Thursday as concern grew that the new U.S. tariffs could trigger retaliatory actions against U.S. farm products, with over 40% of U.S. soybean production sold abroad.

FUNDAMENTALS

* The most-active soybean contract Sv1 on the CBOT fell 1.31% to $10.16 a bushel as of 0037 GMT, the biggest daily drop in a month.

* Soybean oil BOcv1 dropped 1.73% to 47.65 cents per pound and the corn Cv1 contract lost 1.15% to $4.53 a bushel.

* Wheat Wv1 dropped 1.58% to $5.32 a bushel, the biggest daily decline since March 24.

* U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said announced a 10% baseline tariff on most imports to the U.S., with higher duties on dozens of countries, kicking into high gear a global trade war.

* China, the world's largest soybean importer, has already imposed levies on U.S. farm products and may respond further, analysts said.

* However, top trading partners of the U.S. Mexico and Canada avoided fresh tariffs, although previous duties remain.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly data on U.S. wheat export sales on Thursday is expected to report net cancellation of 100,000 metric tons to net sales of 300,000 metric tons for 2024-25, analysts polled by Reuters said.

* The weekly U.S. soybean export sales are expected between 250,000 and 800,000 metric tons for 2024-25, analysts said.

* The crop weather is being closely monitored as farmers prepare to plant corn and soybeans in the Midwest. Heavy showers and thunderstorms have been causing wind damage, large hail and flash flooding in the Corn Belt, a USDA report said.

* Commodity funds net sold CBOT corn, soybean and soymeal futures contracts on Wednesday and net bought soyoil and wheat futures, traders said. COMFUND/CBT

MARKET NEWS

The dollar weakened against the euro and turned higher against the yen on Wednesday as Trump began a long awaited announcement of sweeping new tariffs that look certain to escalate a trade war with global partners, increase prices and upend a decades-old trade order. MKTS/GLOB

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0030 Japan JibunBK Comp Op Final SA, JibunBK SVC PMI Final SA Mar

0145 China Caixin Services PMI Mar

0750 France HCOB - Services PMI, Composite PMI Mar

0755 Germany HCOB Services PMI, Composite Final PMI Mar

0800 EU HCOB Services Final PMI, Composite Final PMI Mar

0830 UK S&P GLOBAL PMI: COMPOSITE - OUTPUT Mar

0830 UK Reserve Assets Total Mar

1230 US International Trade $ Feb

1230 US Initial Jobless Clm 29 Mar, w/e

1345 US S&P Global Comp PMI Final, S&P Global Svcs PMI Final Mar