In the overnight session the grains seemed to find some footing with corn up a penny, soybeans up 10 1/4 cents and wheat in Chicago up 4 1/2 cents. The U.S. dollar is trading nearly 1/2 a percent higher and crude oil is up 11 cents. A reportable sale of 120,000 metric tons of sorghum for delivery to China was announced this morning. The sale was split between old and new crop delivery.
Crop conditions were released after the market closed yesterday and showed that corn conditions increased 1 percent in the good-to-excellent category to 70 percent. The market was expecting to see conditions mostly unchanged on the week. Soybean conditions were left unchanged at 62 percent good-to-excellent which missed expectations of a 1 percent increase this week. Spring wheat conditions also improved a percentage point this week to 71 percent rated good-to-excellent.
Weather is expected to continue cooperating for the majority of the grain belt with temperatures remaining cooler than normal in the second half of the week with showers throughout the Midwest. The Euro weather model is beginning to show some drier southern Midwest conditions expected to develop in the 6-10 day forecast which we will want to monitor in the days to come.
The export inspections report showed that all the grains saw a decline in grain inspections. Corn fell from 1,161,000 metric tons to 1,108,000 MT this year. Soybeans fell from 306,000 to 120,000 metric tons and wheat fell from 489,000 metric tons to 439,000 MT.
