Chicago Grains All Lower
26/09/16 -- Soycomplex: Beans closed lower on harvest pressure and demand worries. Weekly export inspections of only 383,953 MT were the lowest since July and down 30% on last week. The USDA did report the sale of 240,000 MT of US soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2016/2017 marketing year, but that was largely ignored today. A lean spell is likely looming for US sales when China begins a week long holiday beginning October 1st. The USDA will release its quarterly stocks report on Friday with trade ideas for beans around 185 million bushels (as of Sep 1st) versus 195 million previously. After the close the USDA left weekly crop conditions unchanged at 73% good to excellent and said that 10% of this year's crop was now harvested (13% on average). Dropping leaves is 68% of the crop compared to 64% on average. The weather is turning drier this week which should advance harvesting. Seasonal lows are frequently set early October. Nov 16 Soybeans settled at $9.45 1/4, down 9 3/4 cents; Jan 17 Soybeans settled at $9.51 1/2, down 9 1/2 cents; Oct 16 Soybean Meal settled at $297.60, down $5.70; Oct 16 Soybean Oil settled at 33.12, down 19 points,
Corn: The market closed around 7 cents lower despite weekly export inspections of 1.335 MMT. That was nearly 65% larger than the same week a year ago. The forecast for better harvest weather across the next 10 days was however the deciding factor. The USDA said that harvesting of this year's crop was 15% complete as of Sunday night, 4 points behind the 5-year average. Crop conditions were left unchanged at 74% good to excellent. They said that 73% of the crop is mature (64% on average) and that 97% of the crop is dented, one point ahead of the norm. Early French corn yields are "confirming a disappointing season" and the harvest there might now struggle to reach 12 MMT, said Agritel. That would be more than 1 MMT below last year. High temperatures will cut this year's Romanian corn crop to "no more than" 8.75 MMT, according to one analyst. Production last year was 12 MMT. The USDA's FAS in the Philippines said that the country might produce 7.9 MMT of corn this year (7.5 MMT a year ago). Imports in 2016/17 are seen at 0.9 MMT versus only 0.1 MMT in 2015/16. Dec 16 Corn settled at $3.29, down 7 1/2 cents; Mar 17 Corn settled at $3.39, down 7 1/4 cents.
Wheat: The wheat market closed sharply lower. Weekly export inspections of 875,049 MT were impressive (up more than 150% from the previous week) but, as with corn, largely ignored. The USDA reported winter wheat planting at 30% done, in line with the 5-year average and trade expectations. Emergence was placed at 8%, also in line with normal. In Brazil, the state of Parana's wheat harvest is said to be 22% done and quality very good this year. That would be detrimental to US export hopes. The Russian Ag Ministry increased their forecast for wheat production there this year to 71 MMT, estimating a total clean weight grain crop of 113 MMT which easily beats the post-Soviet era record of 108 MMT set in 2008. Planting for the 2017 harvest (mostly wheat) is already nearly 60% complete. Russian grain exports have thus far been slow though at 7.83 MMT to Sep 21, a 9% decline versus the same period in 2015/16. Exports were though much better last week at 747.4 TMT versus a poor 229.4 TMT the previous week. Some 595.3 TMT of that was wheat. Dec 16 CBOT Wheat settled at $3.96, down 8 3/4 cents; Dec 16 KCBT Wheat settled at $4.14, down 7 1/2 cents; Dec 16 MGEX Wheat settled at $4.94 1/2, down 9 1/4 cents.