Market News

Soybeans post more new lows

Soybeans were lower on commercial and technical selling, with July notching another two-year low spot price. Weekly export numbers were neutral to bearish and trade tensions with China continue ahead of scheduled tariffs, with no public progress reported. China and unknown destinations both canceled on previously purchased old crop U.S. beans. Near term U.S. crop weather generally looks non-threatening, but there are some areas of concern, with dry conditions in parts of the Midwest, along with potential flash flooding. Technically, contracts are oversold, but the supply and demand questions are outweighing that, for now. Some in the trade are also anticipating a higher acreage total in the USDA’s report on the 29^th. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower.

Corn was modestly higher on short covering and technical buying, along with spillover from Chicago wheat. Contracts bounced off the recent lows, despite a neutral to bearish set of export numbers. Unknown destinations canceled on 584,700 tons of 2017/18 U.S. corn.  New European Union tariffs on U.S. goods, including corn, are scheduled to go into effect Friday. Corn is also keeping an eye on rainfall totals and flash flooding potential in parts of the Midwest, in addition to dry weather in parts of China, Russia, and Ukraine. The USDA’s quarterly grain stocks report is out June 29^th. Ethanol futures were higher. According to Allendale, traders in South Africa project corn production at 12.991 million tons, compared to the government’s last guess of 12.090 million, with an updated official estimate out next week.

The wheat complex was steady to mostly higher on commercial and technical buying, in addition to the lower U.S. Dollar Index. Weekly export numbers were bearish, reflecting the fundamental outlook, with the next set of supply and demand numbers out July 12^th. July Minneapolis was the lone dissenter, ending the session unchanged. The trade’s also watching winter wheat harvest activity in the U.S. and the Black Sea region, along with spring wheat conditions in the northern U.S. Plains and Canadian Prairies. Japan bought 65,943 tons of U.S. food wheat, along with 25,245 tons from Australia. The Philippines issued a tender for 220,000 tons of optional origin feed wheat.