Chicago Close - Friday

02/12/16 -- Soycomplex: Beans closed slightly lower on the day and the best part of 20 cents easier for the week. Oil was down, but still posted decent weekly advances. Weakness in the Brazilian real and Argentine peso are bearish. Brazilian weather conditions look mostly ideal, although they are more mixed in Argentina. The latter is 46% planted compared to 54% last year at this time. There were no news US sales to China today under the daily reporting system. Maybe they are finally switching their attention to South America? Jan 17 Soybeans settled at $10.27 1/2, down 2 1/4 cents; Mar 17 Soybeans settled at $10.37 1/4, down 1 3/4 cents; Dec 16 Soybean Meal settled at $310.70, down $0.20; Dec 16 Soybean Oil settled at 37.51, down 13 points. For the week that puts nearby beans 18 1/2 cents easier, with meal down $10.10 and oil up 85 points.

Corn: Corn closed around 4-5 cents higher. Ukraine reported their corn harvest to be 90% complete at 24.2 MMT. The Ukraine Ag Ministry said that the country's total grain exports so far this season total 18.4 MMT, of which 4.5 MMT is corn. Russia's corn harvest is 85% complete at 14.4 MMT and well on the way to setting a new all-time high. Argentine corn planting is said to be 43% complete on 2.12 million ha. That's only up 2 points on the week and 9 points behind average. FranceAgriMer reported that the French corn harvest is virtually done at 99% complete compared to 98% the week prior and in line with the year on year norm. South Korea’s Nonghyup Feed Group are said to be in the market for as much as 276,000 MT of optional origin corn for March 30th through April 30th delivery. Dec 16 Corn settled at $3.37 1/2, up 5 3/4 cents; Mar 17 Corn settled at $3.47 1/4, up 4 3/4 cents. For the week Dec 16 corn was 11 3/4 cents weaker and Mar 17 fell 11 cents.

Wheat: Wheat closed higher, led by the front end in Chicago. Argentine wheat is 11.1% harvested. Stats Canada are due out with their latest production estimates on Tuesday. The average estimate for all-wheat production puts the Canadian crop at 30.7 MMT, which is the largest in three years. Algeria were said to have bought at least 120,000 MT of durum wheat for Jan/Feb shipment in a tender. Tunisia are in the market for 109,000 MT of soft wheat and 50,000 MT of feed barley. FranceAgriMer reported that 22% of the French winter wheat crop is at the early tillering stage, down from 53% this time a year ago. rench winter wheat rated good to very good was 94%, unchanged from a week ago, but 3 points down on this time in 2015. Dec 16 CBOT Wheat settled at $3.87 1/2, up 16 cents; Dec 16 KCBT Wheat settled at $3.90, up 6 cents; Dec 16 MGEX Wheat settled at $5.43, up 2 cents. For the week nearby Chicago wheat was down 8 1/4 cents, Kansas fell 21 1/4 cents and Minneapolis was up 8 3/4 cents.