In the overnight the grains are higher with soybeans leading the charge up 7 1/2 cents, wheat up 4 1/4 cents higher and corn down 1/2 a penny. July soybeans now trades above $9.74 which is the 100 day moving average after closing Friday below that level. Crude oil is up 22 cents this morning and the U.S. dollar is only a fraction of a percent higher. The USDA crop progress is expected out at 3 PM CST today.
On Friday, Informa Economics lowered its estimate of U.S. soybean plantings this year to 86.760 million acres down from 87.185 million acres in its previous forecast. Despite the downgrade, Informa is still above the current USDA estimates of 84.635 million acres which was released in March. The USDA will revise its Planted Acreage estimate on June 30th.
The European Union’s crop monitoring service MARS revised its yield estimates from 5.93 tons per hectare to 5.85 metric tons per hectare as a result of low soil moisture throughout the western and central parts of Europe. Higher than normal temperatures early this month accelerated development of crops in Spain Italy and Southern France, but the lack of soil moisture recently has begun to stress the crop. MARS has left corn yield estimates unchanged.
U.S. weather is expected to bring widespread showers later on this week which should continue to help the crops development. Following the showers on Thursday and Friday the outlook shifts to a drier milder outlook.
