The US weather map had a big bearing on Chicago grain futures last night. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is predicted across a large slice of the corn and soybean belt mostly east of the Mississippi this week.
The wet weather is likely to create some sowing delays for corn and spring wheat and if wet enough may also see a few farmers switch out of corn and into crops like soybeans that can be sown a little later.
The market reacted by lifting corn and wheat futures and reducing soybean futures. Is speculative spread trade driving this, probably but if the week finishes up as wet as forecast there may also be some fundamental support by the middle of next week.

The 8 – 15 day model also shows the chance of heavy rain across S.Dakota and some of the spring wheat belt in the US. To the north Saskatchewan is expected to dry out a little and spring sowing should pick up again there during the first week of May.

Over in Europe the 7 to 10 day model is predicting some rain across the drier parts of France and Germany. Although these falls are not expected to fix the current dry spell 100% they should stop the crops from slipping backwards any further. Parts of France and Germany have only seen around 20% of their average rainfall over the last 30 days.