Soybeans were lower on spreading, profit taking and consolidation. Contracts started firm but just weren’t able to follow through. Also, as the session moved on, the dollar rallied and crude oil sold off, pressuring beans. Crop weather in South America is generally good with beneficial rainfall over the weekend, especially in Argentina. Additionally, the weekly export inspections report, which usually serves as a reminder of the supply and demand situation, is delayed until Tuesday at 10 AM Central as weekend snowfall in Washington DC closed down much of the federal government. Soybean meal and oil were lower on spillover from beans and the supply implications of a record South American crop.
Corn was higher on fund and technical buying in light trade volume. Contracts held above key support points for most of the session and when they did dip, they managed to come back with March closing at $4 per bushel after hitting a low of $3.96 and ¼. Harvest continues to move much, much slower than normal with more delays in the forecast this week. USDA’s updated harvest progress numbers are out Tuesday at 3 PM Central, delayed a day by the weekend snowstorm in Washington DC. Ethanol futures were higher.
The wheat complex was lower on profit taking and technical selling. The dollar index was lower early, but rallied as the session went on. Fundamentals remain very negative with a large world supply and poor demand for U.S. wheat. According to Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, Cairo and Russia are in the early stages of discussions to cement a long term wheat supply agreement for Egypt to import high quality Russian wheat while Russia would establish wheat silos in Egypt. Russia supplies half of Egypt’s annual wheat needs. Egypt’s MTI added that wheat reserves are “enough” for the next five months. European wheat was higher on end of the year buying interest despite the bearish world fundamentals; March Paris was .2% higher and May London was up .5%. Dow Jones Newswires reports that Saudi Arabia expects to import around 2 million tons of wheat in 2010 with imports eventually reaching roughly 3 million tons in 2016 as Riyadh phases out domestic production to conserve water. China’s Ministry of Ag states that 2009 winter planted grain area was up 1% in 2009, including a .8% increase in winter wheat planting. Turkey sold 200,000 tons of milling wheat to an unnamed buyer.
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