eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnights closed mixed with corn 1-2 cents lower and wheat around 4 cents higher. Beans closed around 3-5 cents firmer on old crop and mostly just a cent or so higher on new crop.

Trading today is likely to centre around book-squaring ahead of tomorrow's USDA reports. Funds are short wheat, so there may some buying there as they look to book profits.

The jury is still out on tomorrow's acreage report from the USDA, with some forecasting a surprise drop in planted area for soybeans, contrary to the 2 million or so increase that most have pencilled in.

That would likely mean more corn acres than the average trade guess. For wheat only a modest downwards revision in spring area is anticipated.

The Argentine wheat crop for 2009 has a large question mark hanging over it, the USDA currently have a crop of 11 MMT from 4 million hectares, yet the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said at the weekend that final production could be down to 6 MMT this year.

It is worth noting that the USDA's global wheat ending stocks figure for 2009/10 is 14 MMT higher than last week's IGC estimate at 182.65 MMT.

Argy president Fernandez appears to have lost control of both houses of congress in mid-term elections.

Crude oil is higher, bubbling just under the $70/barrel mark and the dollar is a fraction higher, whilst Wall Street is expected to open a little firmer too.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn called flat to 2 lower; July soybeans called 4 to 6 higher, November 1 to 2 higher; CBOT wheat called 2 to 4 higher.