eCBOT Close, Early Call

eCBOT grains closed mixed Tuesday, with beans higher and wheat & corn lower.

Beans closed 16c higher on nearby Jan, but just 3-6c firmer further forward.

Corn closed around 7c lower, with wheat down around a couple of cents.

On the bearish side we have a strong dollar, weak crude and increased US stocks.

Bullish factors are South American weather and sharply lower wheat plantings for this season's crop.

There are various tenders kicking around with Egypt planning to buy at least 55,000mt of wheat in a tender today, Japan seeking 157,000mt of milling wheat in a tender on Jan. 15, of which 90,000mt is U.S. wheat. Pakistan is looking for bids to import 150,000mt by Jan. 31.

South Korea is seeking to buy 55,000mt of corn taking 110,000t of U.S. or South American origin yesterday.

The Philippines says it may import up to 1mmt of wheat in 2009, a ten-fold increase on 2008 purchases, due to high domestic corn prices.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: Corn futures are expected to open 6 to 8 lower; soybeans 2 to 5 higher; wheat 2 to 4 lower.