Market News

Strong session for soybeans

Soybeans were sharply higher on speculative and commercial buying, along with spillover from the outside markets. Weather was the big factor with more hot, dry conditions around key growing areas. USDA did raise acreage and quarterly stocks were larger than expected but those weren’t big factors as most of the trade is focused on weather. Monday’s trade will depend on what happens over the weekend. Soybean meal and oil followed soybeans sharply higher. Dow Jones Newswires reports the cash soybean basis was steady following the USDA numbers.

Corn was higher on fund and commercial buying, in addition to outside market direction. Corn was also watching the weather closely with not really all that much change expected in the near term forecasts but gains in new crop were limited by rainfall in parts of the Eastern Cornbelt. Acreage did top the average pre-report guess but the quarterly stocks estimate was smaller than expected. Dow Jones Newswires adds the cash corn basis was steady Friday. Ethanol futures were mixed with July through November 2011 higher.

The wheat complex was higher on short covering, along with spillover from the dollar, corn, and soybeans. The wheat acreage guess was pretty close to the estimate and the quarterly stocks number looks bearish. Still, world weather’s a big factor with a couple new, lower projections out of the E.U.; Coceral has the soft wheat crop at 125.51 million tons and Copa-Cogeca pegs soft wheat at 125.65 million tons with USDA’s next estimate out July 11. European wheat was lower on harvest pressure and the higher Euro. USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation bought 10,400 tons of spring wheat for distribution in Bangladesh, while in sell-buy-sell activity, Japan purchased 49,460 tons of food wheat, 40,371 tons of food barley, and 5,000 tons of malting barley.