Soybeans were mixed on old crop/new crop spread trade with markets and USDA closed Monday for Memorial Day. Old crop supplies remain extremely tight but the cash basis has been moving lower recently, pressuring July, and there’s increasing talk of the U.S. importing soybeans from South America. Brazil’s ports are seeing improved loading and shipping times, and it looks like potential labor issues in Argentina have been put to rest for now. Past that – the trade’s keeping an eye on soil moisture levels and planting conditions as we get closer to June. Soybean meal was mixed on old crop/new crop spreads and bean oil was lower on fund selling.

Corn was mixed on old crop/new crop spread adjustments. Planting conditions look good across most of the Cornbelt and it’ll be very interesting to see how much progress is made when the numbers come out on Tuesday. In any event, the trade’s expecting a big crop but the supply remains tight and demand looks good, especially from the domestic side of the ledger. Ethanol futures were lower. Taiwan’s Maize Industry Procurement Association bought 60,000 tons of corn from Brazil.

The wheat complex was lower on fund and technical selling. There’s more rain in the forecast for parts of the Southern Plains, but the region is in need of a lot more precipitation than what is in the outlook. China purchased 180,000 tons of new crop U.S. soft red winter and South Korea bought 114,000 tons of optional origin feed wheat. Also, Tunisia picked up 75,000 tons of optional origin milling wheat and Israel purchased 30,000 tons of fed wheat. European wheat was lower on spillover from Chicago.

Soybeans were mostly firm on commercial and technical buying. The nearby supply remains tight and the weekly export numbers were bullish, coming at more than a million tons, with China buying another 115,000 tons of new crop Thursday morning. However, the cash basis has been down over the past few days due to increased farmer selling and planting conditions look good thanks to improved moisture levels. Soybean meal was mostly firm on commercial demand and bean oil was slightly higher on the overall tone of the soybean complex.

Corn was up modestly on commercial and technical buying. Even with more rain in the forecast for some areas of the Cornbelt, the prospects for this year’s crop have improved greatly in the last few days. In any event, near term supplies remain tight and the cash basis remains at historically high levels for this time of year. Ethanol futures were mostly firm, the exceptions being nearby June and July. Strategie Grains projects 2013/14 corn production for current European Union members at 64.5 million tons, down 100,000 from their most recent projection. Croatia joins the European Union in July.

The wheat complex was higher on short covering and technical buying. There’s some rain in the forecast for parts of the hard red winter region, but a lot more is needed across most of the area. Spring wheat planting and emergence remain slower than normal with more rain expected in North Dakota this weekend. European wheat was modestly higher on world weather concerns but gains were limited by higher trade in the euro. Strategie Grains estimates 2013/14 soft wheat production for the 27 current European Union nations at 129.8 million tons, down 200,000 from the last guess on smaller acreage in Germany and France; with Croatia, the estimate is 130.9 million tons. Algeria purchased 400,000 tons of optional origin milling wheat after tendering for 50,000 tons. Japan picked up 122,222 tons of milling wheat (31,955 tons Australian standard white, 25,261 tons U.S. western white, 22,396 tons U.S. dark northern spring, 22,370 tons Canadian western red spring, and 20,240 tons U.S. hard red winter), while in sell-buy-sell activity, Tokyo bought 24,700 tons of feed wheat and tendered for another 120,000 tons.