Market News

Soybeans, corn down on generally good crop weather

Soybeans were modestly lower on speculative and technical selling. Crop development conditions are generally good in most U.S. growing areas. The private crop tour this week has had varied pod counts. The USDA’s projecting a record crop, but is also expecting record demand next marketing year, which starts September 1st. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower. The Gulf basis for beans has had a firm undertone because of a slowdown in harvest activity and shipping delays.

Corn was weak on speculative and technical selling. Corn’s also watching the weather, expecting mostly good conditions across the region. Private crop tour yield estimates have continued to vary as surveyors move towards the center of the Cornbelt. Unknown destinations bought 101,600 tons of new crop U.S. corn. Ethanol futures were lower. For the week ending August 19th, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says ethanol production averaged 1.028 million barrels were down, down 1,000 on the week. Stocks were pegged at 20.817 million barrels, 392,000 above the previous week and a potential sign of slowing demand.

The wheat complex was mostly lower with Chicago and Minneapolis down on speculative and technical selling. Kansas City was fractionally higher, managing to find light short covering and commercial support near the lows. Continued pressure is coming from the large available U.S. and world supplies. Late spring wheat harvest conditions generally look good and the market’s also watching pre-planting weather for winter wheat. Canada put out a larger-than-a-year-ago production estimate and Russia could harvest a record crop. Egypt canceled a tender for 55,000 to 60,000 tons of milling wheat.