GRAINS-U.S. futures little changed as investors focus on central bank meetings

Jan 31 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat, soybean and corn futures were little changed in early Asian trading on Tuesday as caution prevailed across markets ahead of a slew of central bank policy meetings this week, including the U.S. Federal Reserve.

FUNDAMENTALS

* The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was virtually flat at $15.35 a bushel, as of 0237 GMT. Wheat was almost steady at $7.52-1/4 a bushel, while corn slipped 0.1% to $6.83 a bushel.

* Investors broadly expect the Fed to raise interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, while both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank are likely to increase their rates by 50 bps on Thursday.

* Brazilian farmers had harvested 5% of the planted soybean area in the 2022/23 cycle through last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, up 3 percentage points from the previous week but still below last year's levels.

* Wheat prices in India, the world's biggest consumer of the grain after China, have dropped nearly 13% from record highs since a government offer last week of 3 million tonnes to bulk consumers such as flour millers.

* The expectation of large Brazilian corn exports to China in 2023 is worrying Brazil's meat companies in a large producing state, according to a statement from Santa Catarina's meat processors lobby Sindicarne.

* Ukraine's grain harvest is likely to fall to 35 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes in 2023, including 12 million-15 million tonnes of wheat and 15 million-17 million tonnes of corn, a senior analyst and producer said.

* Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soybean, wheat, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Monday, traders said.

MARKET NEWS

* Asian shares traded cautiously and bonds nursed small losses as investors braced for an eventful week that includes central bank meetings, a slew of earnings reports and key U.S. economic data.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0030 Australia Retail Sales MM Final Dec

0130 China NBS Manufacturing PMI Jan

0630 France GDP Preliminary Q4

0745 France CPI (EU Norm) Prelim YY Jan

0745 France Producer Prices YY Dec

0855 Germany Unemployment Chg SA Jan

0855 Germany Unemployment Rate SA Jan

0100 EU GDP Flash Prelim Q4

0900 Germany CPI Prelim YY Jan

0900 Germany HICP Prelim YY Jan

U.S. Federal Reserve's FOMC starts its two-day meeting on interest rates (Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)