In the Sunday night session the grains are trading lower with December corn down 1 cent, November soybeans down 3 ¾ cents and December Chicago wheat trading 5 cents lower this morning. Rains are expected in the first half of the week across the Northwestern Midwest which will slow harvest pace. Precipitation is then expected to move eastward by the later half of the week.
The Quarterly Grain Stocks was released on Friday surprised the market lifting corn and soybeans and sending wheat prices on another slide lower. U.S Corn stocks were reported at 2.295 billion bushels which was lower than the average Reuters analyst guess of 2.353 billion bushels. Soybean stocks were reported at .301 billion bushels which was below the analyst expectations of .338 billion bushels. The USDA also announced that based on the quarterly grain stocks report, they have adjusted their 2016 harvested area down 40,000 acres to 82.7 million acres and revised their yield estimate down .1 bushels per acre.
Total wheat in all positions was reported at 2.253 billion bushels which is down 11 percent from a year ago, but above analyst expectations of 2.205 billion bushels. Spring wheat was the biggest surprise with the stocks report showing 416 million bushels compared to the trade expectations of 382 million bushels. Spring wheat is now trading down 35 cents lower than its opening price on Friday.
Barge rates have jumped to a three year high as harvest is underway in the U.S. Rates have been further lifted due to low river levels which have caused some delays as emergency repair work is conducted. This will likely have a negative impact on basis along the river.
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