Grains were mostly higher overnight as soybeans and corn continue to add to recent gains while wheat slipped. In outside markets, the US dollar was sharply lower while crude oil slipped lower from 5-week highs.
On Monday, USDA’s crop progress report showed corn and soybean condition unchanged from last week, with corn pegged at 74% good-to-excellent and soybeans at 72%. Also on Monday, NOPA’s monthly soybean crush report was disappointing showing 143.7 MB of soybeans crushed in July while traders had been looking for 146.7 MB.
In international news, the head of Russia’s grain union expects the wheat crop there to be 69.5 MMT. That would be a lower number than the 72.0 MMT pegged by USDA. Germany's 2016 wheat harvest will fall 8.8% on the year to 24.21 MMT after crops suffered from bad weather this summer with rain and lack of sunshine, the country's association of farm cooperatives said on Tuesday. This was down from the 25.4 MMT the association had previously forecast in July with crops in the meantime suffering from persistent harvest-time showers in major German grain belts.
Oil prices remained near five-week highs on Tuesday, fueled by talk of producers taking action to prop up the market, although some investors cashed in during Asian hours on the 16% rally since early August. Asian equity markets rose to one-year highs, expanding their gains this year to 10 percent, supported by a jump in oil prices and investor expectations of an extended phase of easy monetary policy around the globe.
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