Grains were lower in overnight trade while crude oil continued to sell off after yesterday’s $1 a barrel slide.
Winter wheat ratings from select states showed steady ratings to improved conditions in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Kansas winter wheat was rated 56 percent good to excellent, unchanged from the previous week. USDA said 6 percent of the crop was jointing, compared with the five-year average of 2 percent. Oklahoma winter wheat was rated 67 percent good to excellent, compared with 66 percent the previous week. USDA said 10 percent of the Oklahoma crop was jointing, compared with 14 percent a year ago and the five-year average of 24 percent. Texas winter wheat was rated 46 percent good to excellent, up from 42 percent in the previous week.
In overnight news, Iraq bought 100,000 MT of wheat from Canada, while Syria is using loaned money from Iran to also buy wheat.
NOPA's Feb crush report is due at 11 a.m. CDT. The average Feb crush estimate among analysts surveyed by Reuters was 139.942 million bushels; range 136.1 million -144.0 million bushels, median 139.300 million.
Crude oil came under more pressure overnight as a meeting proposed by Russia and Saudi Arabia to discuss output limits has been pushed back to April from March 20th after signs some key producing nations do not support the move. Overnight, the Bank of Japan announced it was keeping the reserves deposit rate at minus 0.1%. Stocks are also waiting on a U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate decision due Wednesday. Economists largely expect the central bank to hold rates steady.
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