Chicago Soybeans Lead Market Lower
19/12/16 -- Soycomplex: Beans closed lower on rain in Argentina. BA and La Pampa provinces were said to have received ½ to 1 ½” rains over the weekend, with the prospect of more to follow. Adding to the bearish tone was news that SAFRAS increased its Brazilian soybean production estimate to 106.1 MMT, up 2.6 MMT from October and now 4.1 MMT above the USDA. Crop development is said to be very good. The USDA announced 264,000 MT of soybeans to China announced under the daily reporting system. Weekly export inspections were pretty good at 1.731 MMT, even if they were down 6% from the previous week. Jan 17 Soybeans settled at $10.21 1/2, down 15 1/4 cents; Mar 17 Soybeans settled at $10.32, down 14 3/4 cents; Jan 17 Soybean Meal settled at $312.20, down $4.90; Jan 17 Soybean Oil settled at 36.56, down 18 points.
Corn: Corn closed around 3 cents easier. Weekly export inspections of 769,008 MT were a bit on the low side of expectations and down 12% from the previous week. The USDA did report 128,000 MT of US corn sold to Japan for delivery in 2016/17 under the daily reporting system though. Argentina has received the much anticipated rains over much of their critical growing acres with more expected this week, easing production fears there. The Russian 2016 harvest is finally wrapping up at 125.8 MMT (97.2% complete), including 15.3 MMT of corn off 89.3% of the planted area. Record production this year is a certainty. They've already increased 2016/17 exports by almost a third over 2015/16 to 2.05 MMT. Ukraine's seaports exported 670.1 TMT of grains last week, of which 442.4 TMT was corn. Agritel say that the Ukraine corn harvest still has around 10% to go, with final production expected at around 26.2 MMT, a 2.9 MMT increase on a year ago. Mar 17 Corn settled at $3.53 1/4, down 3 cents; May 17 Corn settled at $3.60, down 3 cents.
Wheat: Wheat closed lower in line with the rest of the complex. Weekly export inspections of 478,213 MT were in line with expectations. YTD inspections are still up nearly 27% vs. year ago though. Extreme cold in the US Plains and Midwest is still grabbing some attention for US wheat, although the market is very conscious of the global oversupply situation. The EU’s crop monitoring unit, MARS, sees possible frost kill the week beginning December 21. Winter weather there has been relatively mild so far leaving crops vulnerable to a cold snap forecast to see temperatures drop to -4C. Egypt are back in the market tendering for wheat for late Jan shipment. Russia's wheat exports so far this season stand at 14.32 MMT. In Argentina, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange expects Cordoba wheat producers to harvest a record 4 MMT this year, up from 2.7 MMT a year ago. Mar 17 CBOT Wheat settled at $4.05, down 4 1/4 cents; Mar 17 KCBT Wheat settled at $4.14, down 3/4 cent; Mar 17 MGEX Wheat settled at $5.41 3/4, down 2 1/2 cents.
