In the overnight session the grains traded higher with corn up 4 cents, soybeans up 7 1/2 cents and wheat up 1/2 cent this morning. The U.S. dollar is trading .16 percent higher and crude oil is up 21 cents this morning. Traders will be focusing on the Crop Production report and Supply and Demand report scheduled for release at 11 AM CST on Wednesday. Traders will also be paying close attention to the crop progress to be issued out at 3 PM CST.
Last week both Informa and FC Stone released their yield estimates for corn and soybeans below the existing July USDA forecast. Informa set its corn yield forecast at 165.4 BPA and its soybean yield forecast at 45.4 BPA. FC Stone set its corn yield estimates at 165 BPA and its soybean 45 BPA. The July USDA forecast set corn yield at 166.8 BPA and soybean yield at 46 BPA.
Thundershowers provided relief to some of the drier areas in the grain belt over the weekend and more scattered showers are expected today. The 6-10 day forecasts continues to show drier than normal conditions across the majority of the grain belt with some precipitation expected in the northern areas in the 8-14 day forecast.
France is expected to harvest 28 percent less corn than 2014 after fewer acres were planted this year and dry, hot weather damaged crop development and robbed yield potential. The latest forecast for French corn production is roughly 13.2 million metric tons with an average yield of 8.3 metric tons per hectare. French corn production is down from a production record in 2014 that yielded 10.4 metric tons per hectare.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia bought 505,000 metric tons of wheat in an international tender supplied by a variety of countries throughout the European Union, North America, South America, Australia and Canada. Jordan’s state grain buyer also issued a tender for 100,000 metric tons of corn to be sourced from optional origins.
