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Grains, oilseeds close well above lows

Soybeans were mixed in consolidation trade. Contracts were down for most of the session on extremely bearish outside trade but managed to bounce back thanks to strong demand. Unknown bought 120,000 tons of new crop U.S. soybeans, bringing the total over the past six business days to 1.112 million tons. Outsides were very bearish with the dollar and gold higher and Dow and crude oil dropping following bearish U.S. employment numbers. Soybean meal was up and oil was down on the adjustment of product spreads. South Korea’s Nonghyup Feed Inc. bought 55,000 tons of South American origin soybean meal.

Corn was mostly lower on commercial buying in old crop against speculative selling in new crop. On the bear side, near term planting conditions continue to look generally good across most areas of the Midwest. However, the nearbys were up on the tight supply and strong demand with extremely limited deliveries on the May contract. On Friday, USDA reported South Korea picking up 116,000 tons of U.S. 2012/13 corn and Mexico buying 240,000 tons of 2012/13 optional origin corn, at least some of which will be from the U.S. Ethanol futures were mostly lower. Dow Jones Newswires reports the Korea Corn Processing Association passed on a tender for 55,000 tons of food corn citing high prices while Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture says it will import 94,500 tons of corn from April through September because of domestic production shortfalls with 67,500 tons from the East Africa Community trade bloc.

The wheat complex was lower on profit taking, technical selling, and spillover from the outside markets, especially the dollar. The overall fundamentals remain bearish, especially on the global supply side of the balance sheet. In any event, there was no real fresh news with traders largely focused on winter development and spring planting. European wheat was lower on improved rainfall across the continent. South Korea’s Feed Leaders Committee picked up 55,000 tons of optional origin feed wheat. Ukraine’s Ag Ministry reports that as of May 4, 77% of the spring grain crop was planted. According to Dow Jones Newswires, Kenya’s Ag Ministry projects 2012 wheat production at 594,000 tons, up sharply on the year. Statistics Canada’s new grain and oilseed estimates are out Monday with estimates for all wheat ranging from 14.4 million to 15.3 million tons.

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