Market News

Wheat lower on bearish supply fundamentals

Soybeans were modestly lower on profit taking and technical selling. Conditions in South America generally look good. According to Safras e Mercado, 24.8% of Brazil’s corn crop is harvested, with Mato Grosso at 52% complete. The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange expects soybean production to be around 54.8 million tons, if weather holds. Demand’s solid, but the market expects at least some impact from South America. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower.

Corn was firm on short covering and technical buying. Corn’s also watching South America with corn in generally good condition. Unknown destinations bought 111,200 tons of 2016/17 U.S. corn. USDA initially also reported a new sale to Japan, but that was retracted several hours after the announcement. Ethanol futures were lower. According to wire reports, China could sell corn to Japan, but there’s a lot up in the air.

The wheat complex was modestly lower on profit taking and technical selling. The supply side of the market is bearish and Chicago’s backing off from last week’s five month highs. Unknown destinations bought a total of 138,650 tons of U.S. wheat. For 2016/17 delivery, that covered 44,100 tons of hard red winter, 22,450 tons of hard red spring, 23,700 tons of white wheat, and 2,400 tons of durum. For 2017/18, that covered 22,200 tons of hard red winter, 11,200 tons of hard red spring, and 12,600 tons of white wheat. DTN reported sales of 400,000 tons of optional origin milling wheat to Ethiopia, 360,000 tons of “unknown” origin wheat to Egypt, 200,000 tons of “likely Canadian” durum to Algeria, and 54,000 tons of Australian wheat to the Philippines. SovEcon lowered its wheat export outlook to 26.6 million tons.