The gains in wheat picked up in the overnight session couldn’t be sustained in the US day session. Soybeans at Chicago and spring wheat futures at MGEX managed to settle in the black. Canola at Winnipeg and rapeseed at Paris got the usual leg up from soybeans and managed to close convincingly stronger.
Soybeans were supported by very good Chinese import data with July imports at 10.08mt, much higher than the 7.69mt reported in June and 2.32mt higher than this time last year. Corn futures closed lower, this was surprising given the decline in condition rating and good export demand. Poor weather in the main corn producing states in the US should continue to support corn values. In yesterday’s condition report Illinois G/E rating actually slipped 5%.
The main focus is on the USDA report on Thursday night. At the moment this holds all the weight and futures trading is generally positioning around what may or may not be in this report.
In last night’s ND Wheat crop progress report durum wheat was said to be at 80-90% turning colour, this is well ahead of normal. Harvest has started but the percentage of the durum crop in is negligible. Crop condition ratings for durum in North Dakota improved a little with some of the latest fields expected to be able to benefit from last week’s showers. Only 17% of the crop is rated good though, not even 1% is rated excellent. S.SASK durum values were flat at C$303.98 / tonne for Nov delivery, ex farm.