Market News

Soybeans up, watching Argentina

Soybeans were modestly higher on commercial and technical buying. The trade’s watching weather in Argentina – some areas are too wet and others are too dry. Some damage has been done and some yield has probably been lost, but it’s really still too early to tell. Early harvest activity is underway in Mato Grosso, Brazil with the pace slightly ahead of last year. Beans, and corn, are keeping an eye on any developments in a Brazilian truck strike delaying movement to ports. Soybean meal was higher, following beans, and bean oil was mixed in consolidation trade.

Corn was fractionally lower on profit taking and technical selling, after an up and down day. Corn’s also watching South America with more rain in the forecast for already wet parts of Argentina this weekend. Export and domestic demand are positives, but there’s plenty of corn available right now. Nearby ethanol futures were lower with weekly EIA numbers out Thursday.

The wheat complex was narrowly mixed. Minneapolis was up on the comparatively good demand for higher protein types of wheat and Kansas City followed. Chicago was down on supply pressure and profit taking, but has managed to hold up relatively well at these multi-week highs. DTN says the Philippines bought 165,000 tons of feed wheat, probably from Australia. Taiwan is tendering for 93,600 tons of wheat.