Chicago Ends Little Changed

18/10/11 -- Soybeans: Nov 11 Soybeans closed at USD12.50 3/4, down 2 1/4 cents; Jan 12 Soybeans closed at USD12.56 1/4, down 4 1/4 cents; Dec 11 Soybean Meal closed at USD324.30, up USD1.30; Dec 11 Soybean Oil closed at 52.70, down 20 points. Considering that beans finished the overnight session 20-25 cents lower this was a fairly impressive performance. US growers are more interested in cracking on with the harvest than selling. News of faltering growth in the Chinese economy was seen as bearish. Weekly export inspections were much better than expected at 45.036 million bushels.

Corn: Dec 11 Corn closed at USD6.44, up 3 1/2 cents; Mar 12 Corn closed at USD6.52 3/4, up 1 1/2 cents. Corn managed to turn around from trading in red for much of the session with funds buying an estimate 7,000 contracts on the day. Corn weekly export inspections were poor at 21.172 million bushels. As with beans producer selling is light for the time being, although that could change once the harvest is in. The market is expecting another robust set of weekly export sales on Thursday, with China likely to feature heavily.

Wheat: Dec 11 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.25 1/4, up 1 cent; Dec 11 KCBT Wheat closed at USD7.11 1/2, down 2 3/4 cents; Dec 11 MGEX Wheat closed at USD9.06 1/2, up 10 3/4 cents. Minneapolis was again the leader. Weekly export inspections were so so at 16.359 million bushels. Funds hold a hefty short position in CBOT wheat which is underpinning the market even though the US continues to miss out on a series of high profile wheat tenders, the latest being from Iraq who bought a combo of 350,000 MT of Russian, Canadian and Australian wheat on Monday.