CBOT Closing Comments

Soybeans

September beans closed at $10.90 ½, down ½ cents, November finished at $9.96 ½, down 2 ½ cents. Soybean stocks remain tight and demand strong, mainly from China. Argentine farmers are again protesting government policies that tax grain and oilseed exports. The seven day strike is scheduled to begin Friday night is the third strike this year. Limited harvesting has begun in the Deep South by a few farmers keen to try and cash in on the nearby premiums. Trade guesses for tomorrow’s weekly export sales report are between 800,000 and 1,250,000 MT.

Corn

September corn closed at $3.20 ½, down 1 cent, and December corn at $3.26 ¼, down ½ cent. Crop development remains behind the five year average with cooler than normal temperatures in the 6 to 10 and 8 to 14 day forecasts for most of the US east of the Rockies. The rainfall outlook for the next few days is wet along a frontal boundary from southeast Nebraska through Iowa into northern Illinois, northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Very heavy rainfall over 3 inches is possible with scattered strong thunderstorms, according to Gail Martell of Martell Crop projections. The trade is estimating weekly export sales between 800,000 and 1,150,000 MT.

Wheat

September wheat ended at $4.78 ¾, up 7 ¾ cents. The world has a good supply of wheat but US wheat prices and quality have attracted Egyptian buying recently, with them buying 60,000 MT of US wheat today. The spring wheat harvest is lagging well behind normal and funds are heavily short, leaving the market vulnerable to a technical bounce. Export estimates for tomorrow’s weekly report range from 350,000 to 450,000 MT.