Early Call On Chicago

14/12/10 -- The overnight grains were mixed, with wheat mostly 5-7c lower, corn down 1-3c and beans up 1-2c.

Crude oil is around half a dollar weaker and the USD is a touch easier too.

It looks like another turnaround Tuesday is in store with profit-taking from last night and ahead of the year end on the cards.

China's weekly government auctions weren't very well supported at all with beans attracting no bids whatsoever and only minimal interest in corn.

With Chinese food price inflation now running at 11.7% and grain and oilseed prices at their highest since the "food crisis" of 2008 you have to start wondering if China's so-called insatiable appetite for grains can continue for much longer.

Argentine weather prospects seem to have improved a little, although it's early days yet with more than a third of the soybean crop still to be planted. Corn plantings are well advanced.

In the US, yesterday's November NOPA soybean crush was disappointing at 148.9 million bushels. The export inspections were also pretty insipid.

Is it just me or is the market looking rather tired as we approach the last fortnight of 2010?

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn down 1-3c, wheat down 5-7c, beans up 1-3c.