Market News

Steady to lower finish for grains and oilseeds

Soybeans were steady to lower, consolidating after an active week. USDA reports China bought 180,000 tons of 2012/13 U.S. beans, despite having a week long holiday going on, helping the nearbys close unchanged. There’re concerns that cooler temperatures and rain will slow down harvest and possibly even damage the crop in some areas, but we’ll know more Monday after the crop progress report. Ahead of Thursday’s production update, Informa projects production at 2.860 billion bushels with an average yield of 37.8 bushels per acre. Soybean meal was up in the nearbys, down in the deferreds, and bean oil was lower, following crude oil. Safras & Mercado, via Dow Jones Newswires, reports 3% of Brazil’s crop is planted, compared to the five year average of 2%.

Corn was lower on technical selling and end of the week consolidation trade. Informa put out a bearish crop production estimate and at this point, a freeze won’t damage the crop. Informa sees corn at 11.194 billion bushels with an average yield of 127 bushels per acre, while Allendale sees the crop at 10.603 billion bushels with an average yield of 123.2 bushels per acre. USDA’s next production guess is out Thursday, along with updated ending stocks projections. However, wet weather in some parts of the Cornbelt could pose problems for harvest activity. Ethanol futures were lower.

The wheat complex was lower on technical selling and end of the week consolidation. There’s been a puzzling lack of buying interest in wheat lately even with smaller crops in the Black Sea region and Australia. The trade’s watching weather and potential freeze damage to the emerging winter crop. European wheat was down modestly on a lack of new demand. South Korea flour mills bought 43,900 tons of Australian wheat. According to Dow Jones Newswires, Australian farm and trade groups are pushing for the deregulation of wheat exports. Commonwealth Bank Australia adds 2012/13 wheat exports should be down sharply on the year due to the smaller crop. Russia’s Ag Ministry reports 92.5% of the grain crop is harvested with the running total down 23% on the year at 67.5 million tons.

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