Chicago Closing Comments

Corn

March corn at finished $3.51 ¾, up 1 ½ cents December corn finished at $3.91 ½, up 1 ¾ cents. Corn opened higher but drifted throughout the day to only close with modest gains. A weaker dollar and the farmers strike in Argentina was supportive, but throughout the session a falling Wall Street and crude oil price weighed on corn by the end of the day.

Soybeans

March soybeans closed at $8.72 ¾, up 10 ¼ cents November soybeans closed at $8.40, up 9 ½ cents. Beans were more than 30 cents higher early in the session but gave up a fair slice of those gains later on as the stock market declined, with Wall Street closing at it's lowest level in twelve years. The Argy strike is supportive for beans, but looking further ahead the chance of US farmers planting anything up to 6m acres more soybeans for the 2009 harvest is ultimately bearish longer term.

Wheat

March CBOT wheat settled at $5.10 ½, down 8 ¾ cents. Egypt passing on US wheat in favour of Russian grain was viewed as bearish, although dryness in the US Plains remains a concern. A sharply lower stock market and continued concerns over the economy weighed on wheat later in the day.