eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnight grains all closed narrowly mixed, with few changes more than a couple of cents either way.

A firmer dollar and weaker crude are a little bearish. There is a pick up in "we're turning/have turned the corner" talk in the US after last week's better-than-anticipated jobs data.

Book-squaring ahead of Wednesday's USDA report is likely to be a feature, and it seems unlikely at this stage that we will see any major movements one way or the other before then, unless something major comes out of the blue.

US weather looks generally favourable, some increased heat later in the week shouldn't be too threatening at this stage.

After the close tonight we will also get crop progress & condition ratings from the USDA.

The Black Sea harvest is well advanced, although yields are said to be disappointing. Not so in western Europe where yields seem to be coming in better than expected.

US wheat has got a small boost from talk that Japan will need more of the grain in the season ahead, after it's own crop has suffered due to rain. Japan, as we know, usually buys mostly US wheat in it's regular weekly tenders.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn called 1 to 3 higher; soybeans called 2 lower to 3 higher; wheat called 1 to 2 lower.