Chicago Closing Comments - Wednesday
24/02/16 -- Soycomplex: Beans closed a touch lower. US exports are seen staring to slip away as the Brazilian harvest cranks up, with trade estimates for tomorrow's weekly export sales report in the region of 300,000 to 700,000 MT for beans. That said, there are already reports of backlogs staring to build in Brazil, with current waiting times in Paranagua 50-60 days compared to 20 days last year at this time, according to Dr Cordonnier. It's the USDA Outlook Forum this week, where they give us some tentative spring planting ideas before they release the more official planting intentions report at the end of March. Mar 16 Soybeans settled at $8.67 1/2, down 1 3/4 cents; May 16 Soybeans settled at $8.72 1/4, down 3/4 cent; Mar 16 Soybean Meal settled at $262.90, down $0.30; Mar 16 Soybean Oil settled at 30.92, up 17 points.
Corn: The corn market drifted a couple of cents lower. Weekly ethanol production from the US Energy Dept came in at 994,000 barrels per day, an increase of 19,000 bpd from the previous week. The USDA announced that private exporters sold 110,000 MT of US corn to Columbia this morning for 2015/16 delivery under the daily reporting system. Trade estimates for tomorrow's weekly export sales report are forecast in the region of 700,000 MT to 1.2 MMT. Crude oil closed a tad higher despite Saudi Arabia and Iran stating that they have no plans to slow production. Dollar strength, and the forecast for more to come in 2016, remains a potential problem for US corn exports going forward however. Mar 16 Corn settled at $3.59 3/4, down 2 1/4 cents; May 16 Corn settled at $3.64 1/2, down 2 1/4 cents.
Wheat: The wheat market closed lower. Sluggish US exports remain the main problem, with tomorrow's weekly export sales report seen coming in at around 200,000 and 450,000 MT. There are international buyers about, with Iraq tendering for US, Canadian and/or Australian wheat. Algeria are also looking for hard wheat and the Philippines and Thailand for feed wheat. Egypt too released another late tender tonight with the results expected tomorrow afternoon. Platts said that with 4 1/2 months left to go in the 2015/16 marketing year that they expect Europe to export a further 12.5 MMT of wheat. Russia may export another 5.8 MMT and the US 8.1 MMT, they said. India's wheat crop meanwhile will fall around 7 MMT to 89 MMT, meaning that the country may need to import between 1-4 MMT of wheat in 2015/16., they added. May 16 CBOT Wheat settled at $4.51 1/4, down 4 1/2 cents; May 16 KCBT Wheat settled at $4.53 3/4, down 2 3/4 cents; May 16 MGEX Wheat settled at $4.91, down 1/2 cent.
