Overnight Grains Lower - Wheat On The Ropes

Overnight grains are lower on eCBOT with wheat heading for its largest monthly decline in 22 years. Wheat is currently around 9c lower, having already declined 21% this month, the most since Feb 1986.

A stronger dollar is depressing the entire grains complex this morning with corn around 7c lower and soybeans down around 15c.

U.S. overseas sales of wheat in the most recent four weeks sank to 1.79 million metric tons, down 32 percent from a year earlier, Department of Agriculture data showed in a report yesterday.

World wheat production will rise 12 percent to a record 683 million tons in the year to June 2009, up from 610 million tons this past year, the International Grains Council said yesterday.

Meanwhile corn output will fall 1.8 percent to 773 million tons from 787 million, the council said. Largely due to lower US production, after record output to meet surging ethanol demand in 2007-08.

The dollar rose as much as 1.9 percent to $1.2668 per euro. Crude oil fell for a second day with the December delivery contract in New York declining as much as 3.3 percent to $63.80 a barrel. Oil is poised for its biggest monthly drop since trading began in 1983.