Oct 30 (Reuters) -Spot basis bids for soybeans shipped by barge to U.S. Gulf Coast terminals turned lower for a third day on Wednesday, as freight costs softened, traders said.

* CIF corn bids for nearby months also eased.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed private sales of 132,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans to China, another 132,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to unknown destinations and 273,048 tons of U.S. corn to unknown destinations. All the sales are for shipment in the 2024/25 marketing year.

* Spot barge freight rates fell by 50 percentage points of tariff at St. Louis and by 25 points in the Illinois River. BG/US

* CIF soybean barges saw a flurry of recent trades for nearby months, traders said. One broker told Reuters that either late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, soybean barges loaded in October traded as high as 145 cents over Chicago Board of Trade November SX24.

* But by mid-day, CIF beans were trading sharply down after one large market player jumped into the market and began selling CIF at lower levels, with October loadings trading at 111 cents over November futures and November loadings trading at 107 cents over futures.

* CIF October soybean barges were bid at 110 cents, down 5 cents, over CBOT November futures.

* Export premiums for nearby months - particularly for soybeans - ticked lower, following CIF, traders said. But offers still remain somewhat elevated due to tight loading capacity at the Gulf, one trader said.

* Soybean FOB offers were at 152 cents over futures for shipment in the first half of November, down 3 cents from Tuesday; and 147 cents over futures for last half shipment, also down 3 cents.

* CIF October corn barge bids fell 2 cents to 89 cents over CBOT December corn CZ24 futures.

* FOB Gulf offers for November corn shipments were down 2 cents at 123 cents over futures.

Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

For displays of CIF basis, click on the codes in brackets: U.S. CIF Gulf soybeans GRYM U.S. CIF Gulf corn GRYN U.S. CIF Gulf SRW wheat GRYO U.S. CIF Gulf HRW wheat GRYP
For displays of FOB basis, please click on the following codes in brackets: U.S. FOB Gulf corn GRZC U.S. FOB Gulf soybeans GRZD U.S. FOB Gulf SRW wheat GRZE U.S. FOB Gulf HRW wheat GRZF LINKS Corn prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=corn-cash-market
Wheat prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=wheat-cash-market
U.S. barge freight BG/US
U.S. export sales estimates USDA/EST
U.S. grain export summary GRA/U
Brazil soybean export prices SYBS
Brazil corn export prices SYBX
Argentina grain prices GRA/ARG
Russia grain prices GRA/RU