CBOT Closing Comments

Soybeans

July soybeans closed at USD9.61, up 9 cents; July soybean Meal at USD289.40, up USD3.40; July soybean oil is at 37.92, down 13 points. Support came from news of a sale of 35,000 MT of soybean oil to China for the 2009/10 marketing year, and a sale of120,000 MT of soybeans to "unknown" for 2010/11. Also supportive was crude oil rallying to close 58c higher at USD77.37/barrel after trading lower earlier in the day. Lingering concerns over lower rapeseed production in Canada was also a bullish factor. Informa increased their 2010 US soybean planting estimate to 78.845 million acres from 78.5 million last month.

Corn

July corn closed at USD3.60 3/4, up 3 1/4 cents; Dec corn ended at USD3.80 1/2, up 2 1/4 cents. The Buenos Aires exchange raised its Argentine corn production estimate to 22.7 MMT from last months 21 MMT, and increase of more than 50% on last season. Argentina is the world's second largest exporter of corn after the US. Informa Economics surprised the trade by cutting its estimate for US 2010 corn plantings by almost 300,000 acres to 89.3 million. Although that is still half a million higher than last month's USDA projection, with corn having gone into the ground in a timely manner this season it was generally expected that US farmers would have taken the opportunity to increase their area by more than that.

Wheat

July CBOT wheat closed at USD4.61 3/4, down 1 cents; July KCBT wheat at USD4.97 1/4, up 1 3/4 cents; July MGEX wheat at USD5.38 1/4, up 1/4 cent. The gap between CBOT soft wheat and the hard wheats of Kansas and Minneapolis continues to widen. CBOT wheat gained 21 cents for the week. Kansas wheat was up 30 cents for the week, and Minneapolis wheat rose 37 cents for the week. Informa pegged the 2010 US spring wheat area at 13.456 million acres, 400,000 lower than the USDA. Concerns over a sharply reduced acreage in Canada continue to underpin the wheat market. Traders are hoping the US wheat will feature in Saudi Arabia's huge 990,000 MT wheat tender, the results of which are expected over the weekend.