Market News

Wheat gives back some of recent gains

Soybeans were lower on commercial and technical selling. The trade followed through on Tuesday, while watching the weather, which looks generally non-threatening in most of the Midwest. New acreage and quarterly stocks numbers are out on the 30th. Demand is strong, but exports have faced increasing competition from South America’s record crop, and there’s a lot of uncertainty connected to acreage. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower. Safras e Mercado says 58% of Brazil’s soybeans have been sold, slower than average, and probably why the U.S. export pace has held up as well as it has.

Corn was modestly lower on commercial and technical selling. It was an up and down day, with corn also watching the weather and getting ready for the end of the month USDA numbers. Corn for ethanol use last week was more than what’s needed to meet USDA estimates. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says production averaged 990,00 barrels a day, down 12,000 on the week, and stocks were 22.280 million barrels, 262,000 less than the previous week. Ethanol futures were lower.

The wheat complex was lower on profit taking and technical selling. Parts of the northern Plains have received some much needed rain over the last couple of days, but could use a lot more, with South Dakota’s crop in pretty dire condition. The trade was also watching winter wheat harvest activity, expecting generally good progress, aside from a couple of rain delays. Bangladesh is tendering for 50,000 tons of wheat. Weekly USDA numbers are out Thursday at 8:30 AM Eastern/7:30 AM Central. France’s Agritel lowered its soft wheat production estimate to 36 million to 37 million tons and Strategie Grains sees production for the European Union at 141.6 million tons.