Market News

Grains and oilseeds up on outsides, funds

Soybeans were higher on fund and speculative buying along with spillover from the outside markets. The dollar was lower while the Dow and crude oil were higher, making gains for the third session in a row. USDA reports 94% of soybeans are blooming, compared to 96% last year and 94% average, with 70% at the pod setting stage, compared to 82% last year and 78% for the five year average. 61% of soybeans are in good to excellent shape, unchanged from a week ago. Soybean meal and oil followed beans and the outsides higher. The National Oilseed Processors Association’s July crush was better than expected at 122.952 million bushels. China’s National Grain and Oils Information Center expects August soybean imports to be around 4.5 million tons, which would be down 16% from July’s total. Still, that’s a lot bigger than the recent guess of 3.85 million tons from Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce.

Corn was higher on light fund buying and spillover from beans and the outside markets. There was no fresh news but the trade remains very concerned about yield and production loss in key growing areas, pushing December to a new contract high. As of Sunday, 98% of corn is silking, compared to 99% last year and 97% average, with 52% at the dough making stage, compared to 71% to last year and 58% average, and 17% dented, compared to 30% last year and 21% average, while 60% of corn is called good to excellent, unchanged on the week; 1% did slip from the excellent category to good. Ethanol futures were higher.

The wheat complex was higher on technical and fund buying along with spillover from the outsides, especially the dollar. Saudi Arabia bought 660,000 tons of wheat over the weekend with a big chunk of that high quality, high protein U.S. wheat; no breakdown was the released and the other sources were Australia, Canada and the European Union. For winter wheat, 91% is harvested, compared to 90% last year and 94% average, and for spring wheat 13% is harvested, compared to 31% last year and 39% average, and 66% of the crop is rated good to excellent, unchanged from last week. European wheat was firm on concerns over Germany’s crop quality due to recent rainfall. A German firm, via Dow Jones Newswires, pegs the total grain crop at 40.3 million tons, compared to 44 million a year ago. Algeria bought 500,000 tons of milling wheat and USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation picked up 18,500 tons of U.S. hard red winter for distribution in Ethiopia. Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reports 97% of the 2011 grain crop has been harvested, with 98% of wheat collected, accounting for 22.6 million tons.