eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnight markets closed mixed to slightly lower, with wheat down 3-4 cents, corn 1-2 cents lower and soybeans unchanged to a cent or so higher.

The USDA last night pegged 44% of the soybean crop as harvested as of Sunday, in the middle of trade estimates of 40-50%, corn harvesting only advance three points to just 20% - towards the low end of expectations.

US winter wheat plantings were 76% done vs 85% normally, with the two main causes for concern Illinois at 33% vs 82% normally, and Indiana at 43% vs 83% on average.

High relative humidity, strong winds, snow and rain will keep the snail’s pace harvest on a slow-track for yet another five to seven days. The first days of November though show some improvement, says Allen Motew of QT Weather.

It's this November improvement that the trade seemed to be largely focusing on last night and again this morning.

Crude oil fell out of bed yesterday, dipping back below USD80/barrel on ideas that stocks data from the API and EIA, due today and tomorrow, will show inventories are back on the increase.

The trade is still struggling to balance potentially record large corn and soybean production against unprecedented delays in harvesting.

Whilst the corn harvest only advanced 3 points last week, soybeans moved ahead by 14 points. This would appear to indicate that farmers view beans as the most likely to vulnerable to further crop and quality problems just at the moment.

Many US farm message boards are full of farmers posts complaining about how high current moisture levels currently are (up to 35%), and the associated hefty drying charges that they are likely to incur.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn called flat to 2 lower; soybeans called mixed; wheat called 2 to 4 lower.