In overnight trade US corn and soybean futures were sharply higher while soft and hard wheat closed lower. Spring wheat futures bucked the trend at Chicago and managed to close in the black.
This puts nearby corn futures at the best they have been since late July. Soybean found support after showers continue to delay harvest in some parts of the eastern corn belt and the outlook shows light showers across the western corn belt today then becoming heavier tomorrow and persisting across much of the central corn belt through to Friday.
The stronger close in US soybean futures lent support to Canadian canola futures and Paris rapeseed with both nearby futures contracts closing higher at +C$2.30/tonne and +€1.25 / tonne respectively.
US winter wheat futures fell away on the back of better weather for the Australian, Ukrainian and Brazilian crop. With Brazil now harvesting wheat it is unlikely that the US will continue to fill the shortfall created by a poor Brazilian / Argentine crop in 2015.

The USDA crop progress report was out after the close and indicated a 1% fall in the Good / Excellent rating for corn, but it is still very high at 73%. Soybean harvest is only 1% below the 5 year average and is indicated at 26% complete thus far. The condition rating for US beans actually jumped 1% in the G/E rating to 74%, this may be considered bearish after many punters had expected a decline after recent rain.