eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnights closed mostly a little firmer, with beans mostly 2-5 cents firmer, and corn generally 3-4 cents higher. Wheat was fractions either side of unchanged, taking a breather from last night's strong gains.

Crude oil is firmer, adding to the better tone, getting some of it's strength from a weaker dollar and steadier equities. Wall Street closed 185 points higher last night, and Asian and European stocks followed suit this morning.

There's a little bit more optimism around today, the market has been awaiting Q2 profit figures from Goldman Sachs, and they've just announced profits easily surpassed expectations at $2.72 billion, or $4.93 per share, for the quarter ended June 26th.

Various other US data such as retail sales and inflation numbers are due later today.

US weather remains largely wet, and if anything maybe a little on the cool side. The wet part of the equation won't do any harm to beans and corn at the moment, but will continue to delay the winter wheat harvest.

South Korea bought 110,000 MT of corn overnight, half US and half optional origin. They also booked 55,000 MT of US soymeal.

The USDA crop progress report didn't throw up any surprises or shocks, 71 percent of corn and 66 percent of soybeans were good to excellent, unchanged from the previous week. Spring wheat for the 6 main growing states, was 57% headed compared to the five average of 83%, indicating that the generally late planted crop is lacking in maturity.

Reports from Russia suggest that the wheat crop there is shrinking, not getting larger as the USDA seem to believe.

India agreed to allow the export of around 1 MMT of wheat last week, and have now promptly changed their minds, due in part to the late arrival of monsoon rains in the north. Inflated domestic prices were also a factor.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn called 2 to 5 higher; new crop soybeans called 3 to 5 higher; wheat called flat to 2 higher.