Soybeans were sharply lower on fund and technical selling. There was no fresh news and there’s at least some rain in the forecast for dry parts of the Midwest next week. Still, the short and long term fundamentals remain bullish with Dow Jones Newswires noting the cash basis was firm at mid-week. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower. With member crush numbers out Thursday, the National Oilseed Processors Associate estimates the May crush at 134.7 million bushels, up on the month thanks to solid soybean meal demand.

Corn was mixed with July up on commercial buying while the other months down on fund selling. There was no fresh news but the nearby supply remains tight and near term demand looks solid. Past that – the trade continues to keep an eye on development weather. Ethanol was mixed with July and August up and the other months lower. Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reports from July 1, 2011 to June 11, corn exports were 13.088 million tons, nearly 3% larger than the same period during the previous marketing year, with total grain exports at 20.7 million tons. 2012/13 exports are estimated at 15 million tons with the crop at 23.8 million tons.

The wheat complex was mixed. Chicago and Kansas City were mostly lower on the bearish fundamentals but Minneapolis was supported by a comparatively good supply and demand outlook. Both Japan and South Korea have issued tenders for U.S. milling wheat with Tokyo looking for 147,118 tons, around 111,000 of that U.S. origin, and Seoul in the market for 25,100 tons. Also, over the past week, there’ve been lower crop estimates for a number of major producers. Out Wednesday, Australia’s Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics sees wheat at 24.1 million tons, down 18% from last year’s record, and France’s Agrimer has soft wheat at 33.91 million tons, down almost 2 million from a year ago. European wheat was basically flat. According to Ukraine’s Ag Ministry, wheat exports during the current marketing year are 5.049 million tons, up 51% from the same period in 2010/11, and 2012/13 production should be 14.15 million tons, with 8.5 million of that milling wheat, for new crop exports of 8.3 million tons, including 6.54 million tons of milling wheat. In sell-buy-sell activity, Japan canceled one tender for 120,000 tons of feed wheat and 200,000 tons of feed barley due to a lack of interest, then turned around and issued an identical tender, also for shipment by September 30.