Market News

Minneapolis leads wheat higher

Soybeans were lower on commercial and technical selling. 67% of U.S. beans are rated good to excellent, up 1% on the week, and the crop is nearly planted. How many acres that actually represents is unknown, with new numbers out June 30th, along with the quarterly grain stocks report. The trade expects at least some shift from corn to soybean acreage, when compared to the March 31st USDA numbers, following a slow start to corn planting. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower. According to Allendale, India may reduce soybean acreage this year, contrary to current USDA expectations, because of relatively low prices.

Corn was lower on commercial and technical selling. 67% of U.S. corn is in good to excellent shape, unchanged from last week. Forecasts for this week have scattered rainfall across key U.S. growing areas and generally non-threatening temperatures. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has lowered its El Nino alert from “watch” to “inactive”, expecting the Southern Oscillation Index to stay neutral for now. AgRural says 4.9% of Brazil’s second corn crop is harvested, a little slower than a year ago, but in-line with the average pace. Ethanol futures were lower ahead of the weekly EIA production and stocks numbers.

The wheat complex was higher on commercial and technical buying. Minneapolis was in the lead after another week to week decline in the spring crop condition rating, down 4% to 41% good to excellent. 64% of South Dakota’s crop is rated poor to very poor. Chicago and Kansas City are watching winter wheat harvest activity, which is, nationally, ahead of average. Japan is tendering for 135,747 tons of food wheat from the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Jordan canceled a tender for 100,000 tons of milling wheat.