Early Call, Wheat Export Sales Awful
eCBOT closed lower with wheat leading the way down after Japan cancelled its usual weekly Thursday tender saying it had ample supplies of the grain.
March wheat closed 8 3/4 lower, with March corn down 6 1/4 and March soybeans down 7c.
Wheat also took a bit of a knock from reports that Nomani Nomani, front man of Egypt's state-owned wheat buying arm GASC, refuted earlier claims that the country would no longer buy Ukraine wheat due to persistent quality issues.
Conflicting reports over exactly how much rain is expected in Argentina over the weekend and early next week maybe also encouraged traders to take a bit of money off the table.
A weak dollar lent a bit of underlying support, but was not enough to drag futures into positive territory.
South Korea bought 110,000mt US corn overnight from Cargill for April delivery.
The weekly export sales report from the USDA threw up a pretty awful number for wheat. Just 23,500mt was sold during the period January 16-22 for the current marketing year, compared to trade expectations of 350-500,000mt. The USDA also reported net reductions of 80,000mt for 2009/10, although news that Nigeria was cancelling was already out in the market earlier this week.
Corn sales by contrast outstripped expectations at over 1.1mmt, compared to ideas of 400-700,000mt.
Soybean export sales came in a little under expectations at 526,100 for 2008/09. Soymeal sales were also pretty strong at 201,700mt.
Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn down 2-3c, soybeans down 5-7c, wheat down 10-15c.
March wheat closed 8 3/4 lower, with March corn down 6 1/4 and March soybeans down 7c.
Wheat also took a bit of a knock from reports that Nomani Nomani, front man of Egypt's state-owned wheat buying arm GASC, refuted earlier claims that the country would no longer buy Ukraine wheat due to persistent quality issues.
Conflicting reports over exactly how much rain is expected in Argentina over the weekend and early next week maybe also encouraged traders to take a bit of money off the table.
A weak dollar lent a bit of underlying support, but was not enough to drag futures into positive territory.
South Korea bought 110,000mt US corn overnight from Cargill for April delivery.
The weekly export sales report from the USDA threw up a pretty awful number for wheat. Just 23,500mt was sold during the period January 16-22 for the current marketing year, compared to trade expectations of 350-500,000mt. The USDA also reported net reductions of 80,000mt for 2009/10, although news that Nigeria was cancelling was already out in the market earlier this week.
Corn sales by contrast outstripped expectations at over 1.1mmt, compared to ideas of 400-700,000mt.
Soybean export sales came in a little under expectations at 526,100 for 2008/09. Soymeal sales were also pretty strong at 201,700mt.
Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn down 2-3c, soybeans down 5-7c, wheat down 10-15c.