Markets are trading mixed this morning, with corn and beans starting the new month under pressure again, while wheat has been able to bounce modestly. A lack of dryness concerns around the U.S. continues to limit buying interest for corn and beans. European wheat futures are trading higher on continued weather concerns in France, lending support to U.S. markets.
Managed funds on Wednesday were estimated as net sellers of 7k corn to push the net short out to 345k, net buyers of 2k beans to reduce the net short to 203k, and net buyers of 1k wheat to reduce the net short to 82k.
Weekly EIA data showed record ethanol production, up 14k bbls to 1,109k bbls with stocks up 250k bbls to 23,973k bbls.
Export sales this morning for wheat were 286.6 tmt (250-550 expected), corn 167.9 tmt (275-600), n/c corn 710.9 tmt (400-800), beans 376.4 tmt (75-300), n/c beans 632.1 tmt (300-900), meal 43.7 tmt (50-350), n/c meal 232.4 tmt (100-350), oil .5 (0-10), and n/c oil -3.5 (0-10).
Bad old crop corn sales and better than expected o/c bean sales. New crop corn/beans were inline with expectations.
USDA soy crush will be out after the close and is expected to show 184.584 mbu were crushed in June.
The Ukraine grain traders union cut their Ukraine grain and oilseed production forecast ty 2.8mmt to 71.8mmt due to hot weather. Their corn estimate was 23.4mmt (USDA 27.7).
French producers group AGPB said French wheat production could drop to 26mmt, which would be the lowest number since the 1980s as heavy rains continue to slow harvest.
The Federal Reserve yesterday kept its overnight interest rate in the 5.25-5.5% range, but signaled that rates could come down after their September meeting.
Corn posted lower lows, lower highs, and a lower close to end the month of July, with prices finishing at new lows for the move. The market is oversold after recent losses, but the trend is lower. Support for Dec. is 3.90 and resistance now 4.05.
Beans posted lower lows and lower highs on Wednesday, but they did reverse from their lows to finish with small gains. The downtrend is in place with Nov. support 10.00 and resistance 10.30.
Corn dropped to new lows to finish the month of July and is struggling to find buyers again today as a wet forecast for the first half of August is keeping production ideas elevated. The trend is lower with the market likely to struggle as long as there is a belief that a lot of old crop corn is still expected to hit the market ahead of harvest.
Beans posted a reversal from lows on Wednesday, but the recovery was pretty unimpressive. The forecast is wet as we enter the critical portion of the bean growing season. We need to start seeing China demand emerge to believe beans can bottom.
Corn down 1-2
Beans down 3-4