DTN Closing Grain Comments

General Comments:

Corn closed up 4 1/4 cents in the July contract and up 4 cents in the December. Soybeans closed down 1 1/4 cents in the July and up 1 3/4 cents in the November. Wheat closed up 4 1/2 cents in the July Chicago, up 5 1/2 cents in the July Kansas City and up 6 3/4 cents in the July Minneapolis.

The June U.S. dollar index is down 0.10 at 98.55. June gold is down $0.10 at $1,228.50 while July silver is up $0.02 and July copper is up 0.0180. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 19 at 20,970. June crude oil is up $0.70 at $46.22. June heating oil is up $0.0242, June RBOB gasoline is up $0.0219, and June natural gas is up $0.080.

For the week:

July corn closed up 4 1/4 cents and December closed up 3 1/2 cents. July soybeans were up 16 3/4 cents while the November was up 13 1/4 cents. July Chicago wheat was up 10 cents, July Kansas City wheat was up 12 3/4 cents, and July Minneapolis wheat was down 1/2 cent.

Corn:

July corn closed up 4 1/4 cents Friday and for the week, taking back part of Thursday's loss with ongoing concerns in the Eastern Corn Belt. Rain fell over Indiana and toward the northeastern states Friday, adding to planting difficulties with temperatures staying cool. On the west side of the Mississippi River, planting conditions will soon become much better where fields aren't flooded as temperatures are turner warmer and the seven-day forecast is drier. In South America, Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange said late Thursday that Argentina's corn harvest was 29% complete. Progress is likely to slow in the week ahead with more rain back in the forecast. With Brazil's second corn crop still doing well, July corn remains firmly entrenched in its sideways range. DTN's National Corn Index closed at $3.26 Thursday, priced 40 cents below the July contract and still in a sideways range. There were 471 contracts of May corn delivered early Friday. In outside markets, the June U.S. dollar index is down 0.10 with traders cautious ahead of Sunday's election in France. The U.S. Labor Department said the unemployment rate improved to 4.4% in April, the lowest in 10 years.

Soybeans:

July soybeans closed down 1 1/4 cents in a relatively quiet Friday session but had modest bullish influence from oil prices. Malaysian palm oil closed up 1.7% overnight and was accompanied by a higher close in canola after Statistics Canada said canola stocks totaled 6.6 million metric tons on March 31, down 23% from a year ago and slightly less than was expected. July soybean oil finished up 0.40, at the upper end of its five-week range after the U.S. International Trade Commission decided to look into claims of biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia possibly hurting U.S. producers (see Friday's DTN Ethanol Blog by Todd Neeley). Soybeans were also helped by Friday morning's news that 4.85 million bushels (132,000 metric tons) of U.S. soybeans were sold to unknown destinations for 2016-17. Even though Brazil is in the peak of its export season, it is somewhat impressive that U.S. soybean prices remain competitive with Brazil and the U.S. is still doing a decent amount of business. Soybeans are also being harvest in Argentina and late Thursday, Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange said 49% of soybeans were in. Three weeks out from July soybeans' outside weekly reversal, prices are still holding above the low of $9.41 1/4, threatening a possible change in trend. DTN's National Soybean Index closed at $9.01 Thursday, priced 74 cents below the July contract and near its highest price in five weeks. Among May contracts, there were 277 deliveries in soybean oil, and 177 deliveries of soybean meal early Friday.

Wheat:

July Chicago wheat closed up 4 1/2 cents Friday and was up a dime on the week, helped by a return of commercial buying after Thursday's sharp sell-off. Late Thursday, the U.S. Wheat Quality Council's HRW crop tour negated previous yield estimates that looked pretty good with a 282 million bushel estimate of Kansas wheat production, down from 467.4 mb a year ago. The tough part, of course, is trying to guess how much of the wheat crop will be able to recover from last weekend's snow. Early Friday, Statistics Canada said all wheat stocks totaled 16.6 mmt on March 31, less than anticipated, but private analysts are already voicing doubts about the estimate, contending actual wheat stocks are probably higher. Outside the U.S., Canada is expecting warmer weather in the week ahead and dryness is noted in north-central Ukraine. Western Europe had helpful showers lately, but also had a bout of freezing temperatures. It has been a wild week, but July Chicago wheat remains in an uptrend for now. DTN's National SRW index closed at $3.95 Wednesday, priced 43 cents below the July contract and down from its highest price in seven weeks. DTN's National HRW index closed at $3.58, back down from its highest price in ten months. Among May contracts, there were 38 deliveries of Chicago wheat and 41 deliveries of K.C. wheat early Friday.

Todd Hultman can be reached at todd.hultman@dtn.com

Follow Todd Hultman on Twitter @ToddHultman1

(CZ)

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