eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnight market closed mixed with beans flat to 2 cents higher, corn 1-2 cents lower and wheat 1-2 cents firmer.

US jobs data has just come in worse than expected, with non farm payrolls up by 190,000 against expectations of 175,000 and unemployment rising from 9.8% last month to 10.2% now. Expectations had been that unemployment would manage to just about creep in under the 10% mark at 9.9%.

That doesn't seem to have had the bearish effect on the dollar that might have been expected. Indeed the greenback has risen since the news, in one of those "reverse psychology" moments. Bad news for the US makes the dollar go up as the market retreats to safe havens.

It could however also be a book-squaring kind of a day, with US weather forecasts improving slightly for next week. The USDA are out on Tuesday with their latest crop production numbers, further increases to US corn and soybeans are likely to be on the cards despite the recent weather problems.

Yesterday's export sales numbers were average at best, and wheat shipments were the lowest since June. US wheat losing out again yesterday to French and Russian wheat in the Egyptian tender might add a bit of pressure.

Crude oil is almost a dollar lower at USD78.67/barrel. Wall Street may open down on the US jobless news.

Early official calls for CBOT are: corn called 1 to 2 lower; soybeans called steady to 2 higher; wheat called 1 to 2 higher.

I'll be surprised if we aren't looking at a sea of red shortly after the opening myself.