U.S. Dollar to pressure grains this morning

In the overnight session, the grains were mixed with corn up 1 cent, soybeans down 1 3/4 cents and wheat up 2 1/2 cents. Crude oil has slipped 57 cents lower this morning with the U.S. dollar index up by over 1 percent. The dollar gained some strength following U.S. housing data and the euro was unable to hold onto recent gains as deal surrounding Greece’s debt remains in debate.

This morning there was some demand activity with Ethiopia buying 240,000 metric tons of wheat from optional origins. Traders expect this wheat to be sourced from the Black Sea region. Japan’s ministry of agriculture is also buying 114,510 metric tons of food quality wheat from the United States or Canada.

Export inspections showed that 1,105,000 metric tons of corn was inspected for export which was above the 800,000-1,000,000 metric tons expected. Soybeans showed 178,000 metric tons inspected for export which was within analyst expectations and wheat inspections missed expectations. Wheat inspections totaled to 290,000 metric tons compared to 300,000-400,000 metric tons anticipated by analysts.

Corn rated good-to-excellent fell 2 percent in this week’s crop progress report which was a bit more than traders were looking for. At this point in the marketing year 71 percent of the corn crop is rated good-to-excellent compared to 74 percent last year. Corn conditions in the eastern grain belt states like Indiana and Ohio dropped the most.

Soybean rated good-to-excellent also fell 2 percent this week which was in line with trade expectations. However, only 90 percent of the crop was planted which is now behind the 4 year average of 95 percent planted during this time of year.

—Cody Bills