In the overnight session the grains traded higher with corn up 3 1/4 cents, soybeans up 10 1/2 cents and wheat up 3 3/4 cents. The U.S. dollar is down .20 percent this morning with crude oil up 88 cents. Corn and soybeans seemed to find some buying support during yesterday’s session with both grains closing the day in the top half of the day’s trading range. Soybeans had the most dramatic price bar of the day, printing a doji near support indicating a possible change in trend.
Crop conditions were in line with analyst expectations with corn good-to-excellent ratings unchanged on the week at 70 percent. Weather continues to look promising this week with above average precipitation, and cooler than normal temperatures expected across the majority of the grain belt. These conditions will be critical for the soybean development as only 54 percent of the crop is setting pods. Soybean conditions improved this week by 1 percentage point to 63 percent rated good-to-excellent.
There are a two yield related items to pay attention to over the next couple days including the first FC Stone yield estimate for the 2015 corn and soybean crop. FC Stone will be releasing their estimate at 3:30 PM CST today. Informa will also be releasing their monthly crop production estimates on Wednesday.
Export inspections disappointed for wheat on Monday with only 298 thousand metric tons inspected for export, down from 439 thousand metric tons last week and below the range of expectations. Soybeans and corn inspections met expectations with 148 thousand metric tons and 920 thousand metric tons respectively. However, corn’s inspections did decline from last week’s levels of 1.1 million metric tons.
