Market News

Grains, oilseeds mostly lower

Soybeans were steady to fractionally lower on fund and technical selling. Brazil’s harvest is a little behind average, but could catch up this week. According to Allendale, harvest is 18.5% complete, compared to 23% on average. Past that – demand remains strong with U.S. beans still holding a large part of the market share. Soybean meal was steady to lower and bean oil was down, with both following beans.

Corn was lower on fund and technical selling. Corn growing and development conditions look good around most of South America. Demand is solid and producer selling is light, but there’s still plenty of corn available at this point. The next set of supply and demand numbers is out March 10^th. Ethanol futures were lower.

The wheat complex was mixed with Chicago and Kansas City lower on fund and technical selling, along with the mostly higher dollar. There’s more bitter cold around the Midwest and Plains, but many areas have, or will have, good protective snow cover. Wheat’s fundamentals remain bearish, with a large supply and slow export demand. Morocco bought 363,500 tons of European Union soft wheat and Tunisia picked up 42,000 tons of optional origin durum.