CBOT Closing Comments

Corn

Corn closed a mixed session lower, with March corn ending down 3 1/2 cents to $3.58 1/4 per bushel. Demand isn't great, although South Korea bought 165,000mt of US corn overnight. Rain in Argentina is seen as beneficial, but quantifiying exactly how much good it will do is still a contencious issue.

Soybeans

Beans closed slightly higher with March ending up 3 1/2 cents a bushel at $9.49 1/2, still well off the day's highs of $9.68. The weather in Argentina has certainly improved, but it is still difficult to say how much this has help the soybean crop there, I guess we can at least say more than it has aided the corn crop. Still production looks like being well down on the originally anticipated 50mmt.

Wheat

March wheat closed down 10 1/4 cents at $5.42 1/4 a bushel, frustrated by news that the US had picked up little interest in export tenders today. Egypt bought mostly French wheat, and Pakistan bought optional origin wheat. Japan will almost certainly buy US wheat tomorrow, but that is normally a given. Korea at least bought a bit of US wheat also, but these trades highlight how very competitive the world export market is at the moment. Chinese and US drought issues got pushed to the background, but may emerge sometime soon.