eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnights closed sharply lower pressured by the fallout from the Dubai jitters. That said, grains did manage to close off their lows with beans down around 22 cents, wheat down 13 or so and corn around 10 cents lower.

Crude oil is around USD4 lower and the dollar higher on the usual "flight to safety" that accompanies a severe dose of the Ertha Kitts.

It's a shortened trading session today, and with many participants missing PLUS the Dubai uncertainty anything could happen this afternoon.

It wouldn't take too much selling to see the market limit down, neither though would it surprise me to see it close in positive territory. Indeed when the fallout settles and things get back to normal next week that is where I think things are headed.

Weekly corn export sales were much larger than anticipated, whilst bean and corn sales were in line with expectations. Weekly soybean shipments however were gigantic at almost 2.5 MMT, with China alone taking more than 1.8 MMT of that.

When the dust finally settles these are the sort of things that the market will be concentrating on.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn called 5 to 10 lower; soybeans called 20 to 25 lower; wheat called 10 to 15 lower.