Market News

Dollar pressures soybeans, corn, wheat

 

Soybeans were lower on fund and technical selling, along with spillover from the higher dollar. The trade’s watching weather in South America, which looks generally good around most growing areas. Safras & Mercado project Brazil’s soybean crop at 95 million tons, down from their previous estimate, but still a new record. Past that – there was no real fresh news to end the week or the month. Soybean meal was lower and soybean oil was higher, correcting some of the recent product spread activity.

Corn was lower on fund and technical selling. There was no real fresh news for corn either and even if demand is solid, there is a lot of corn available. The trade’s also keeping an eye out for any early 2015 U.S. acreage projections. Ethanol futures were higher. Safras & Mercado sees Brazil’s corn crop at 74.7 million tons, compared to the previous guess of 75.5 million, on lower second crop acreage.

The wheat complex was lower on fund and technical selling, in addition to the higher dollar. There was also no real fresh news for wheat and the overall fundamentals remain bearish. Still, there’s some commercial demand, which did limit losses. Ethiopia bought 70,000 tons of optional origin milling wheat milling wheat, while South Korea passed on all offers from its recent tender for 30,000 tons of feed wheat. Several ships loaded with Russian wheat bound for Egypt are reportedly stuck in the Black Sea as traders wait for an export tax to take effect February 1.