Market News

Soybeans, corn up, but below day’s highs

Soybeans were higher on speculative and technical buying. Large portions of the Midwest and Plains should see only scattered rainfall along with high temperatures through the weekend. A lot of this year’s crop is at or very close to critical stages of development. Still, contracts actually had a technically bearish close, with many of the more active contracts failing to break overhead resistance. Soybean meal and oil followed beans higher. The USDA’s weekly export sales report is due out Thursday at 8:30 AM Eastern/7:30 AM Central.

Corn was modestly higher on speculative and technical buying, but finished under the session’s highs. Corn is also watching the weather, with development a little slower than normal nationally. Longer range forecasts are more moderate for some areas, but may not be reliable, given potential volatility. Ethanol futures were lower. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says ethanol production last week averaged 1.026 million barrels per day, an increase of 19,000, and stocks were pegged at 21.137 million barrels, a decrease of 44,000. Allendale says Brazil’s corn exports during the first two weeks of July were up sharply on the year.

The wheat complex was mixed, with Kansas City and Minneapolis down on profit taking and commercial selling, and Chicago mostly fractionally higher on spread trade and spillover from corn. Minneapolis continues to keep an eye on the drought or near drought conditions in the northern Plains with a major spring wheat crop tour next week as harvest gets underway. Conditions in the Canadian Prairies because of the increasingly probable damage to high quality, high protein types of wheat used to make bread. Dry, hot weather is also an issue in Europe and Australia. Contracts were overbought and the world supply remains a bearish factor. Taiwan bought 150,150 tons of various grades of U.S. wheat and Egypt purchased 300,000 tons of milling wheat from France, Romania, and Russia.