By Gary Wulf
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


  SUPERIOR, Neb. (Dow Jones)--Crumbling wheat prices and continued declines in
soybean export basis marked the U.S. cash grain market Tuesday.

  U.S. wheat futures closed about 10-15 cents per bushel lower, with the
retreat in cash contracts led by soft red winter wheat. Pressure on SRW prices
was further exacerbated by a 1-5-cent pullback in spot Gulf export basis, which
left CIF premiums almost 20 cents below the previous three-year average.

  "The wheat market remains a bottomless pit," said Farm Futures analyst Bryce
Knorr. "The cloud of weak basis and heavy deliveries continues to hang over
Chicago, while adequate supplies face the other [wheat] markets, as well."

  Elevator bids for SRW wheat entered the session languishing at nine-month
lows, while national-average hard wheat prices floundered at 2 1/2- to 3
1/2-year lows.

  "Harvest weather for the spring wheat crop continues to be favorable, with
large yields and low proteins," said Benson Quinn Commodities analyst Dave
Lehl. "The market remains focused on the good yields coming out of North Dakota
and the unusually good harvest weather this late in the crop year, allowing for
farmers to make good progress."

  Although spot soybean futures closed some 13 cents higher, those potential
price gains were more than negated by a 20-40-cent freefall in soybean export
basis at the Louisiana Gulf.

  "Trade is becoming much less concerned with soybean inventory. This is in
part due to the 100 million bushels of unshipped old-crop sales the United
States had on the books at the end of the marketing year," said MaxYield
commodity trade advisor Karl Setzer. "It is also from the fact early harvest
has added another 100 million bushels of soybeans to the supply line in
southern states."

  Basis premiums at some New Orleans area ports have now plunged $1.10 since
the first of September, also hounded by waning export demand. The USDA on
Tuesday reported weekly soybean export inspections of only 9.5 million bushels,
representing a decline of 46% from the previous week.

  Cash contracts of corn closed 1 cent higher Tuesday, although spot oat
futures finished about 3 cents lower.

   Crop Weather


  Showers and thunderstorms were slowing fieldwork, but maintaining generally
favorable soil moisture levels for immature summer crops and soon-to-be seeded
hard red winter wheat in the central/northern Great Plains on Tuesday.

  "Scattered showers will continue across the nation's midsection, with
five-day rainfall totals as high as 1 to 3 inches from the southern Plains into
the upper Midwest," said USDA agricultural meteorologist Brad Rippey.

  Elsewhere, warm, dry weather continued to push developmentally delayed corn
and soybeans toward maturation in the Midwest and promoted early harvest of
corn/rice in the South and small grains in the Pacific Northwest.

  "During the next several days, rainfall will develop and intensify along and
near the Gulf Coast, with drought relief expected in parts of southern Texas,"
Rippey said.