CBOT Closing Comments

Corn

May corn finished at $3.76 ¼, down 9 ½ cents. Improved US weather conditions over the next couple of weeks are expected to move corn plantings on at a pace. News that the US will introduce tougher penalties over CO2 emissions may be supportive for corn in the long run, but it isn't going to happen tomorrow. Obama is famously pro fuel from renewable sources. An increase in the ethanol mandate to around 12-13% seems likely, but it may not happen until 2010.

Soybeans

May soybeans closed at $10.51, down 7 ½ cents. Still it hasn't been a bad week for beans hitting three month highs and pushing higher every other day this week, so I guess some pre-weekend profit-taking was in order. The Argy crop keeps getting resized lower. China keep buying, with private exporters reporting export sales of 275,000 MT sales to unknown destinations Friday. In the week ended April 9, exporters sold 808,300 tons for delivery before Aug. 31, double the prior four-week average.

Wheat

May CBOT wheat closed at $5.23, down 1 ¾ cents. Improved weather conditions over the next couple of weeks should help revive ailing winter wheat conditions in the US. Spring plantings in the Dakotas however will need a bit more divine intervention than that. Elsewhere in the world the winter wheat crop is emerging from dormancy in largely decent condition, although spring plantings are well behind schedule in Russia and Ukraine.