The July futures contract at Chicago rolled of the board in a similar fashion to how it spent most of its existence, volatile. July corn shed 45c, soybeans were up 22c and wheat, well it bucked the trend, flat to back 4c.
Looking at the December contract wheat was softer, corn a touch higher and soybeans were a tad weaker. The Platts Aussie FOB wheat contract at Chicago was up a smidge. More a function of currency than volatility in the Aussie Platts contract, which I’m sure hasn’t even traded 1000t of wheat during the entire existence of the contract.
The weather model for the US corn belt looks good, recent rainfall across the central corn belt, combined with predicted temperatures at average or even less than average across Illinois will put the corn crop in a good position to tollerate any climatic hiccups it might see in the short term. Over the next 7 days the western corn belt in the US could dry out a little but the central and eastern corn belt is expected to see further showers.
The Canadian durum belt is also expected to see some storms over the next 7 days. Falls could be as high as 50-75mm according to some models, very timely.
Rainfall across France, Germany and Italy is expected to be minimal over the next week, allowing winter grain harvest to gain some momentum. Much of Ukraine will remain dry. Central and northern Russia could see some heavy rain while the black soil regions will remain mostly dry. The spring wheat regions of Kazakhstan should see some good falls towards the north, as will the spring wheat regions of Russia. China is expected to see some very heavy rain across the SW and S-Central districts. Corn regions to the north may also see more rain and continued flooding. Sorghum provinces should see good, average rainfall for the week ahead. China has seen many 1–100-year flood events over the last few weeks, keep an eye on this.