Early Call On Chicago

The overnight grains closed modestly higher, with beans up around 2-4 cents, corn up one and wheat around 2 cents firmer.

The dollar is flat and crude oil a bit weaker after the US Energy Dept said stocks rose 2 million barrels last week.

Export sales were strong for beans, corn and wheat - exceeding trade expectations for all three. China was also a featured buyer of old crop corn, in addition to buying beans for both old and new crop.

The May census crush report was fractionally higher than trade guesses at 133.79 million bushels.

Allendale say that US farmers have planted 89.707 million acres of corn, the largest area since 1944. They peg the 2010 US soybean area at 77.609 million and wheat area at 54.095 million, the lowest since 1971.

The corn number is almost a million higher than the USDA, with the soybean area estimate half a million lower.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: Corn called flat to 2 higher; Soybeans called 2 to 4 higher; Wheat called 1 to 3 higher.