eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnight grains closed lower, giving up some of last night's sharp late gains, largely on the back of a firm dollar this morning.

Beans and corn closed around 4-5 cents lower, with wheat around 8 cents easier on the eCBOT market.

The dollar was sharply higher as world stock markets fell abruptly, prompting a flight to safety and the greenback, with the US unit rising to a one month high against the euro.

The latest weather forecasts in the US aren't looking quite so friendly as they were yesterday.

"A moist southerly flow returns to the Plains and Mississippi Valley next week," according to QT Weather. The latest 6-10 outlook now shows “above normal” precipitation returning to the region next week, with heavy rains forecast for Nov 10-11, they say.

Soybean planting in Argentina is now underway, although reports suggest that seed quality is poor this year after last season's difficulties. Oil World has actually dropped it's estimate of Argy soybean production from 52 MMT to 50 MMT.

Reports emanating from Brazil suggest that the harvest will begin early this year, but at the expense of reduced yields, as farmers try to get a 2nd corn crop into the ground early in 2010.

Indian summer rice production is seen down 18% at just under 70 MMT, say officials there. That may lead to increased demand for wheat which hit contract highs for the fifth straight session today, closing at over USD300/tonne.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT: corn called 4 to 5 lower; soybeans called 4 to 5 lower; wheat called 6 to 8 lower.