Harvest pace in the US dominated the grain futures markets there last night. According to Monday’s crop progress report soybeans are now almost at the 5 year average pace so came under some selling pressure while corn was still well behind the five year average pace thus we saw a little support remain in the corn pit.
The firmer US dollar also resulted in the AUD trading below 78c but realistically if we are looking for guidance from US futures and currency it’s a pretty safe bet the markets for wheat at least should remain relatively flat today.

China managed to sell just over 1,000t of the 4+million tonne of domestic corn offered at auction. So it’s still struggling to off load the huge stock pile it holds. Maybe they are better off holding it until they complete the move to mandatory ethanol inclusion in 2020. Some of the stock is already 4 years old now. The Auction also included wheat, they managed to shift 70kt of the 2mt of wheat on offer, a little better than corn but nothing to write home about.
Winter wheat sowing in the Northern Hemisphere is progressing nicely with Ukraine sowing almost complete and US sowing now up around 75% complete. Rain may hinder completion in the eastern mid west in the USA. Good rain is expected across the Ukraine and much of southern Russia towards the weekend. Heavy rain may become an issue in western Europe while France and Germany see average rainfall. Spain remains dry, as it appears to always be of late.