Chicago Grains Close - Monday

30/11/15 -- Soycomplex: Beans closed higher on continued strong demand. Weekly export inspections of 1.835 MMT were pretty decent and take the season to date total to just shy of 20 MMT. Talk out of Argentina is that new president Macri will not wipe out the 30% export tax on beans in one fell overnight swoop. This will be phased in gradually at 5% per year. That might not mean the sudden glut of Argentine beans coming onto the market that the trade expected. Brazilian soybean planting is estimated to be 81% completed, up 10 points from last week but still lagging a year ago. Weakness of the Brazilian real means that farmers there are already well sold on their 2015/16 crops. Brazilian growers are said to have around 45% of their anticipated soybean production forward sold compared to 26% last year and 40% on average at this time. Mato Grosso is 53% sold compared to 25% this time last year according to IMEA. Parana is 30% sold compared to just 6% last year. Jan 16 Soybeans settled at $8.81, up 8 cents; Mar 16 Soybeans settled at $8.83 1/4, up 7 3/4 cents; Dec 15 Soybean Meal settled at $284.60, up $2.20; Dec 15 Soybean Oil settled at 29.10, up 35 points.

Corn: The corn market closed around 5 cents higher. Weekly export inspections of just 298,692 MT were poor. Season to date exports are now 26% down on this time last year at 6.7 MMT. The EPA released its updated RFS mandate today, That increased the amount of corn based ethanol used in biofuel from 13.61 billion gallons in 2014, to 14.05 billion in 2015, to 14.5 billion in 2016. In Brazil, farmers in Mato Grosso "have forward contracted 50% of the anticipated safrinha corn production compared to 0% last year at this time. Some of the more aggressive farmers, who have contracted as much as 60% of their anticipated corn production, are now very concerned if they will be able to meet those commitments due to delays in soybean planting and subsequently delays in the safrinha corn planting," said Dr Cordonnier. Ukraine said that it's 2015 corn harvest was 95% complete at 21.82 MMT. APK Inform said that Russian seaports had shipped out 156.6 TMT of corn last week. The Russian Ag Ministry said that the country's grain exports to Nov 25 this season are 15.95 MMT of which 1.2 MMT was corn. Rabobank said that forex rates will have a bigger influence on agri-commodity market prices in 2016 than ever before. ABN Amro forecast the US dollar rising to 1.28 against the pound and 0.95 versus the euro by mid-2016. Dec 15 Corn settled at $3.65, up 5 3/4 cents,; Mar 16 Corn settled at $3.72 1/4, up 5 cents.

Wheat: The wheat market closed mixed, with Chicago the weakest leg and Minneapolis the strongest. There was also a marked disparity between where the nearby contracts ended the day and the forwards. Reports out of Argentina suggest that the new Ag Minister will be looking to abolish export taxes on wheat and corn with more or less immediate effect. Weekly US export inspections of 275,736 MT were uninspiring. The season to date total is now 16% below last season's pace at this time. The USDA reported that US winter wheat conditions improved by 2 points this week, to 55% good to excellent. Russian seaports were reported to have shipped out 471.5 TMT of grains last week, down from 525.9 TMT the previous week, of which 260.6 TMT was wheat. Ukraine said that their winter wheat crop is 91% sown on 5.64 million ha. The winter barley crop is still only 84% sown, due to adverse weather conditions. Rusagrotrans said that Russia may have to redirect around 1.6 MMT of grains scheduled for shipment to Turkey due to uncertainties following the recent dispute between the two nations. Turkey are said to have accounted for 18% of all Russian grain exports in 2014/15, and for their part Russia supplied 70% of all of Turkey's grain imports - so the two are important trading partners. Vessels sailing under the Russian flag are said to now be experiencing difficulties entering the Bosporus Strait. Dec 15 CBOT Wheat settled at $4.60, down 5 3/4 cents; Dec 15 KCBT Wheat settled at $4.57, up 7 cents; Dec 15 MGEX Wheat settled at $5.23 1/4, up 13 1/4 cents.