Market News

Soybeans, corn up on rain total uncertainties

Soybeans were modestly higher on speculative and technical buying. Rain fell overnight Tuesday into Wednesday in parts of the Midwest, with more expected over the next few days, mostly in central and eastern sections. While the precipitation was definitely welcome in parts of the region, it could cause some flooding and may miss some of the drier areas. There’s a long way to go yet in this growing season, but there are a lot of questions about impact of weather and how the crop will end up averaging out, nationally. Soybean meal and oil were higher, following beans. The USDA’s weekly export sales report is out Thursday at 8:30 AM Eastern/7:30 AM Central.

Corn was modestly higher on speculative and technical buying. Corn is also watching the weather, expecting generally cooler temperatures to go with the scattered rainfall. The USDA’s first field based production numbers of the season are out August 10th, along with prevent plant totals and new supply and demand projections. Ethanol futures were higher. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports ethanol production last week averaged 1.012 million barrels per day, down 14,000 on the week, while stocks were 21.529 million barrels, up 392,000.

The wheat complex was higher on speculative and technical buying. The spring wheat crop tour is moving west, into some of the hardest hit parts northern U.S. Plains. The trade’s expecting a high rate of abandonment in those areas. First day yields were below a year ago by a pretty good margin and those were some of the better looking growing areas. The northwestern Plains and most of the Canadian Prairies are expected to stay dry for at least the next week and it’s probably too late for a big chunk of the crop. Chicago and Kansas City were up, following Minneapolis and watching the tail end of the winter wheat harvest. Algeria bought 500,000 tons of optional origin wheat and Egypt purchased 420,000 tons of wheat.