Storms across the US corn belt will be followed by cooler weather this week but the mercury is still likely to settle around the 30C mark. Longer term it looks like the first week of August may also be a little dry for the central corn belt and the northern US spring wheat area is not expected to see much more than a storm from the change.

Hedge funds used the weather map to continue selling out of the recent rally in wheat. Corn, soybeans and canola also saw significant declines by the close. Canola was back just over C$10/t on both the Nov and Jan contracts by the close and Paris rapeseed futures also closed lower by four Euros per tonne.

After the close the weekly USDA crop condition ratings were released showing a 2% decline in the G/E rating for corn, a 4% reduction in the G/E for soybeans a 5% reduction in cotton and 1% drop in spring wheat rated good to excellent, now at 33%.
The main pressure on the US market will be the ability of the hedge funds to liquidate longs in an orderly manner.
Good Russian production will continue to act as a cap on values in the Middle East.