Market News

Soybeans, corn, wheat down ahead of USDA numbers

Soybeans were lower on speculative and technical selling, failing to follow through on early gains. The trade was watching the weather and getting ready for Tuesday’s supply and demand update. Old crop stocks should be down, but new crop stocks are expected to be higher. The report is out Tuesday at Noon Eastern/11 AM Central. Monday, the USDA reported 40% of soybeans are blooming, compared to the five year average of 31%, and 7% are at the pod setting stage, compared to 5% on average. 71% of soybeans are rated good to excellent, up 1%. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower.

Corn was lower on speculative and technical selling. Corn was also watching weather, which generally looks non-threatening, while getting ready for the USDA numbers. Old and new crop ending stocks are both expected to be up on the month. Ethanol futures were lower. As of Sunday, 32% of corn is silking, compared to 26% typically this time of year, with a strong week to week advance. 76% of U.S. corn is in good to excellent shape, up 1%.

The wheat complex was lower on speculative and technical selling, along with the higher dollar. The fundamentals are bearish with a large world supply and while export demand has been good recently, the marketing year is only a little more than a month old. Chicago and Kansas City are watching harvest conditions and Minneapolis is concentrating on development weather. For winter wheat, 66% of the crop is harvested, compared to 65% on average. For spring wheat, 91% has headed, compared to 64% on average, and 70% of the crop is in good to excellent condition, down 2%. South Korea bought 25,500 tons of U.S. milling wheat.