Early Call On Chicago

11/04/11 -- The overnight grains closed mostly lower, with the exception of nearby corn which was 1-2c firmer. Apart from that most other months on corn were around 2-5 lower. Wheat closed around 3-6c easier and beans were down 10c or so.

Corn set a new high in early overnight trade, and beans and wheat were also showing significant gains at one point before falling away.

Comments by COFCO that Chinese crush margins are poor, and processors there are only running at 40% capacity and may look to cancel/defer existing soybean purchases may have been behind the demise of soybeans. Certainly US export sales have been a bit on the low side recently.

Brazil looks like bringing in a record soybean harvest as bumper yields in the south make up for some rain-induced yield losses further north. Paraguay are also expected to bring in a record 8 MMT crop this year due to higher yields.

Competition for America will also soon start to come from Argentina, where the soybean harvest is 21% done, according to the Ag Ministry there.

Parts of parched Oklahoma got almost 3 in of rain over the weekend, and although rains were lighter in other areas, many saw an inch or so of precious moisture.

A 7.1 on the Richter scale earthquake hit Fukushima again this morning, exactly a month after the original tremor shook global markets.

A ceasefire plan in Libya has supposedly been agreed to by Gaddafi and negotiators from the African Union are said to be on their way to Benghazi to meet with rebel leaders. Crude is a a bit weaker on the back of that.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn up 1-2c, beans down 8-10c, wheat down 2-4c.