Soybeans were sharply higher on fund and commercial buying. The commercial outlook remains strong with a tight supply and solid demand, and the trade’s watching weather in South America. Parts of Argentina remain wet and there’s a drier pattern on tap for sections of Brazil. Weekly export numbers were bullish, topping what’s needed to meet USDA projections. According to Dow Jones Newswires, U.S. producers are holding onto newly harvested beans in hopes of higher prices. Soybean meal and oil were higher, following beans. Taiwan issued a tender for 12,000 tons of U.S. soybeans.

Corn was higher on fund and commercial buying, along with spillover from beans. The long term commercial outlook is supportive, but there was no fresh news. At this point, the trade’s basically just watching the tail end of harvest and waiting for new export demand. The weekly export numbers were bearish again this week but Taiwan is tendering for 23,000 tons of U.S. corn and with Ukraine’s sales ahead of normal and crop size below average, business is expected to pick up. Domestic farmer selling remains light with producers holding out for higher prices. Ethanol futures were higher. Strategie Grains sees 2012/13 corn production for the European Union at 52.8 million tons, down 900,000 on the year due to lower yields in the southeastern portion of the community.

The wheat complex was higher on commercial and technical buying, in addition to spillover from beans. Japan bought a little more than 100,000 tons of U.S. milling wheat (49,656 tons dark northern spring, 42,385 tons hard red winter, and 8,035 tons western white), along with 28,068 tons of western red spring from Canada. The weekly export sales were above expectations but less than what’s needed to meet projections for the current marketing year. European wheat was higher on the higher U.S. trade. Strategie Grains lowered its 2012/13 soft wheat estimate for the European Union by 700,000 tons to 123 million. Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reports winter wheat planting is at 94%. The United Kingdom’s customs service reports wheat exports for August were down 84% on the year at 26,804 tons. South Korea’s Nonghyup Feed Inc. bought 55,000 tons of optional origin feed wheat. Argentina’s Ag Ministry estimates 2012/13 wheat production at 11.5 million tons, down from 13.2 million last year, and expects 5 million tons to be available for export.