Soybeans were lower on technical and speculative selling, along with end of the month profit taking. Traders were watching the weather which generally looks more moderate as we get ready to turn the calendar over to August. There were probably minimal first notice day deliveries on beans and China picked up 220,000 of new crop U.S. beans ahead of the open. China’s Ministry of Commerce estimates July imports at 4,973,280 tons and sees August at 3,152,619 tons. Soybean meal and oil were lower, following the lead of beans. ABIOVE pegs Brazil’s 2011/12 soybean crop at 74.1 million tons, up 7.5% from a year ago, with exports at 32.4 million tons and the crush at 36.2 million tons. Also, ABIOVE projects soybean meal production at 27.5 million tons with bean oil at 7 million tons.

Corn was lower on profit taking and fund selling. Corn was also watching the weather and the generally less threatening outlooks for most of the Midwest. At this point, traders are pretty much just waiting for new weather forecasts, fresh demand news, and USDA’s August 11 production, supply and demand numbers. Ethanol futures were lower. The International Grains Council expects 2011/12 Chinese corn imports to hit a 16 year high of 3.0 million tons with the domestic crop at 180 million. The IGC has U.S. corn exports at 49 million tons.

The wheat complex was lower on profit taking and commercial selling. Wheat’s fundamentals remain bearish, especially on the demand side, with Egypt buying another 240,000 tons of Russian wheat. Yield results and production estimates have been disappointing, but that’s largely factored in right now. European wheat was lower on spillover from the U.S. and increased export competition from Black Sea origin supplies. SovEcon does note Russia’s crop might not meet expectations due to weather issues. France’s InVivo expects that nation’s wheat crop to hit 33 million tons, with harvested at 50% to 60% complete. Japan bought 9,050 tons of food wheat in a sell-buy-sell trade.