Chicago Closing Comments - Wednesday

11/04/12 -- Soybeans: May 12 Soybeans closed at USD14.22, down 4 cents; Nov 12 Soybeans closed at USD13.59, down 5 3/4 cents; May 12 Soybean Meal closed at USD386.80, down USD3.00; May 12 Soybean Oil closed at 56.45, down 52 points. Funds sold an estimated 6,000 soybean contracts on the day uninspired by a lack of fresh news. That brings fund liquidation to an estimated 16,000 lot over the last three sessions despite Tuesday's USDA report looking bullish for beans. It's expected to have been another busy week on the sales front with estimates for tomorrow’s weekly export sales report at 800 to 1,100 TMT.

Corn: May 12 Corn closed at USD6.36, up 1 1/4 cents; Dec 12 Corn closed at USD5.46 3/4, up 3 1/4 cents. Funds were said to have bought 6,000 contracts on the day having solf 23,000 in the first couple of days of the week. Today's action could have been due to the unwinding of corn/soybean spreads. Estimates for tomorrow’s weekly export sales report are 400 to 850 thousand MT. If we get another week of 1 MMT plus then, given the general lack of respect for the USDA's 2011/12 ending stocks estimate, we could bump higher tomorrow. Crude oil rebounded from a near two-month low Tuesday to close at USD102.70/barrel.

Wheat: May 12 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.28, up 2 1/4 cents; May 12 KCBT Wheat closed at USD6.44, up 3 cents; May 12 MGEX Wheat closed at USD8.38 1/4, up 4 1/2 cents. Wheat rebounded a little from a sharply lower close yesterday. Below normal temperatures in the wheat belt have seen night-time temperatures dip low enough to cause a light frost in places, although not too much damage is thought likely to have been done at this stage. Libya bought 50,000 MT of Russian wheat, but US exports have picked up in the past couple of months. Estimates for tomorrow's weekly export sales range between 400 and 600 TMT.