* Negative tone amid tumbling stock market, firm dollar
* Grains/soy decline with other commodities
* Markets range-bound in choppy trade
* Eye on dryness in South American production areas
(Recasts, updates prices, market activity, comments to close)
By Karl Plume
CHICAGO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. grain and soybean futures
eased on Wednesday in tandem with other commodities, including
crude oil and industrial metals, as concerns about a deepening
global recession weighed on all markets, traders said.
Crude oil fell to a 22-month low under $54 a barrel,
aluminum hit a three-year low, and copper dropped nearly 4
percent. The dollar firmed late in the day, typically a
negative for demand of dollar-denominated commodities.
The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled, prospects faded
for a bailout of the U.S. auto industry and data showed U.S.
consumer prices dropped at a record pace in October.
"It's pretty much the stock markets. The equity markets are
under severe pressure -- it is just more of the same news,"
said Prudential Bache Commodities analyst Anne Frick, referring
to the slide in CBOT markets.
Chicago Board of Trade January soybeans ended 5 cents lower
at $8.97 a bushel, holding within the roughly $8.72 to $9.22
trading range of the past week.
December corn fell 1-1/4 cents to $3.78-3/4 a bushel while
CBOT December wheat ended down 2-3/4 cents at $5.27 a bushel.
While CBOT markets closed lower, prices seesawed throughout
the session, including an early rally in soybeans that fizzled
quickly on global economic worries.
Soybeans drew support amid concerns dry weather could slow
planting in Argentina, the No. 3 soybean exporter.
"I think the dry weather in Argentina has been moved from
the back burner to the front burner and everything was
following beans," Joe Bedore, CBOT floor manager for trade
house FC Stone, said of the opening advance.
"Short-term the weather is friendly (bullish) to the market
but I don't think anyone is long-term friendly because of the
way the world recession is developing," he added.
Favorable harvest weather in the western U.S. Corn Belt
weighed on corn prices as it was expected to speed the lagging
corn harvest and may prompt an increase in post-harvest grain
movement.
Demand for U.S. corn and wheat remained sluggish and
traders expected Thursday's U.S. Agriculture Department weekly
export sales report to show another week of lackluster trade in
both commodities. Weekly soybean exports were expected to be
relatively strong.
An expected record-large global wheat crop still overhangs
the market, although quality concerns due to rainy harvest-time
weather in eastern Australia and worries about Argentine
dryness offered some underlying support.
(Additional reporting by Sam Nelson in Chicago, Naveen
Thukral in Singapore and Valerie Parent in Paris; Editing by
David Gregorio)
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