In the Sunday overnight session the grains traded lower with December corn down 4 ¼ cents, November soybeans down 9 3/4 cents and December wheat down 7 cents. Weekend rains in the southern half of North Dakota, parts of western Minnesota and eastern Nebraska are pressuring the market along with a positive weather forecast that shows a couple more good chances for precipitation over the next two weeks.
This morning Saudi Arabia’s state grain buyer announced it had purchased 660,000 metric tons of animal feed barley it had recently tendered. The barley purchase was filled at an average price of $203.37.
On Friday, Russia’s agriculture consultancy IKAR increased its forecast for Russian wheat production to 77-80 million metric tons from 74-77 million metric tons in its previous forecast. The large crop anticipated in Russia has put pressure their wheat prices making this the second consecutive week that wheat export prices have fallen. Russia FOB export prices now sit at around $192 a metric ton. Russia continues their wheat harvest and is now only two percent behind last year's harvest pace.
On Friday, the latest commitment of traders report showed that managed money net long position in corn fell from 84,644 to 67,073. Wheat also lost ground with the biggest change coming from Chicago wheat which went from net long 12,190 to a net short position of -14,101. Kansas City wheat net long position shrunk from 54,187 to 48,935 and Spring wheat held mostly steady at 10,708 from 10,808 the previous week. The managed money net long position in Soybeans also dropped sharply this week from 39,795 to 12,913.
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