Market News

Corn, wheat post modest gains

Soybeans were modestly lower on profit taking and technical selling. For the first time in a while, there were no new export sales reported by the USDA Wednesday. Demand continues to be solid as the trade gets ready for Friday’s USDA numbers. Most U.S. soybeans look good and the trade expects a big crop, but there are concerns in some key growing areas. Soybean meal was lower and bean oil was higher on the adjustment of product spreads. CONAB lowered its production outlook for Brazil to 95.42 million tons. There have been no deliveries reported on August soybeans.

Corn was fractionally higher on commercial and technical buying. Mexico bought 143,650 tons of new crop U.S. corn and there’s talk Brazil may import U.S. corn. Corn was also watching the weather and getting ready for Friday’s supply, demand, and production estimates. The numbers are out at Noon Eastern/11 AM Central. Ethanol futures were lower, following their recent trend and being pressured by production. For the week ending August 5th, the EIA reports production averaged 1.018 million barrels per day, up 14,000 on the week and the second highest recorded. Stocks came out at 20.460 million barrels, compared to 20.603 million the week before. CONAB pegs Brazil’s winter corn crop at 42.59 million tons, with total production at 68.48 million. That’s well below last year’s total of 84.67 million tons.

The wheat complex was modestly higher on commercial and technical buying, along with the lower dollar. The fundamentals are bearish, especially on the supply side, but there’s buying interest at the lows. Forecasts have scattered rain in the spring wheat region, aiding late developing crops in some areas, delaying harvest in others. Export demand’s been better than expected and there are some domestic and global production uncertainties, but world ending stocks Friday should be above a year ago. Taiwan is tendering for 85,300 tons of milling wheat.