In the overnight session the grains traded lower with corn down 5 cents, soybeans down 7 cents and wheat down 5 cents. The U.S. dollar is higher by nearly ½ a percent and crude oil is 33 cents higher this morning. For Soybeans, the 50 percent retracement of the sharp rally in November soybeans sits at $9.70 ½ which is just 4 cents lower than where soybeans is trading this morning. The 50 percent retracement of the Corn rally is at $4.08 ¼ which was touched during yesterday's trade. This morning Corn trades at around $4.09 ½ cents.
This morning a few reportable sales were announced including a 220,000 metric ton sale of Soybeans to China for new crop delivery. This is the fourth consecutive day of reportable new crop soybean sales. Exporters also sold 231,000 metric tons of corn to Mexico, most of which was for 15/16 delivery and 104,350 metric tons of wheat to Taiwan for 15/16 delivery. In this morning's string of export sales another 116,000 metric tons of Sorghum was sold to unknown destinations split between old crop and new crop delivery.
Weather continues to look positive for crop development this morning with some showers passing through North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota this morning and providing moisture to Nebraska and Iowa on Saturday. The 6-10 day outlook looks to bring more precipitation to the grain belt after a week of drier conditions. Early next week temperatures could reach mid 90's in the southwest but should be mostly high 80's throughout the majority of the grain belt.
A recent crop forecast from Bueno's Aires projects a slight decline in planted wheat acreage throughout Argentina. The report lowered its planted area estimate from 5 million hectares to 4.8 million hectares for the 15/16 growing season. The ministry also lowered its 14/15 soybean production estimates from 61 million metric tons to 60.8 million metric tons. The revisions were a result of dryness throughout parts of the country.
