Chicago Grains - Friday

27/05/16 -- Soycomplex: Soybeans closed higher heading into a 3-day weekend. supportive today was news that the USDA had announced new crop sales of 110 TMT of soybeans to China and 100 TMT of soymeal to unknown this morning. The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange estimated that Argentinean soybean harvest was 72% complete, up 11 percentage points from a week ago. Flood damage has been severe not only in crop loss and lower quality terms – but in delays of getting the harvest to the market, they said. The Exchange held its 2015/16 production estimate on hold at 56 MMT. Jul 16 Soybeans settled at $10.86 1/2, up 6 3/4 cents; Nov 16 Soybeans settled at $10.56 1/4, up 5 3/4 cents; Jul 16 Soybean Meal settled at $402.60, down $7.00; Jul 16 Soybean Oil settled at 31.48, up 44 points.

Corn: The corn market closed higher on the day and with double digit gains for the week. Unknown destinations bought 140,000 MT of US corn for old crop delivery6, dome were suggesting that this was China, but it seems a unlikely. They were reported to have sold off 890 TMT of the 2 MMT offered in today's government auction. The US has only shipped 0.3 MMT of US corn into China so far this year. Of the remaining 1.8 MMT of imports some 1.15 MMT if said to be coming from Ukraine. The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said that the corn harvest there was 29% complete, 14% behind average and up just 1 percentage point from last Friday due to wet weather. The Exchange left its production estimate unchanged at 25 MMT. Jul 16 Corn settled at $4.12 3/4, up 4 1/2 cents; Sep 16 Corn settled at $4.14 1/4, up 3 3/4 cents.

Wheat: The wheat market closed mostly lower. The US markets will be closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. London wheat will also be closed, but Paris grains are open as usual. FRench wheat crop conditions fell week-on-week, US Winter wheat conditions are expected to fall 1-2% in next week’s report. Russian wheat exports for 2015/16 total 23.1 MMT as of May 23, compared to 21.05 MMT a year previously. Canada said that their wheat exports were 3% lower year-on-year at 13.3 MMT with 10 weeks of the season remaining. Jordan announced a tender for 100,000 MT of optional origin milling wheat. Algeria were in the market for "at least" 50,000 MT of hard wheat and finished up buying 130,000 MT from Mexico. Jul 16 CBOT Wheat settled at $4.81 1/2, up 1/4 cent; Jul 16 KCBT Wheat settled at $4.59 3/4, down 2 1/2 cents; Sep 16 MGEX Wheat settled at $5.35 1/2, down 6 3/4 cents.