Grain futures prices were mixed among trade tensions

Grains’ futures were mixed on Friday’s trading session, caused by the standing trade tensions between U.S. and China in addition to a favorable crop production weather in much of the U.S. held Soybean futures lower again on Friday, profit-takers also interfered to drop Wheat price lower, while Corn futures lifted a bit higher due to some short-covering.

Seasonally warm weather will take over into the middle of next week, and some moderate amount of rainfall is expected, which may cause some grain price to decline, and other do rise.

Oil prices fell today pressured by growing Russian production and U.S. drilling activity reaching its highest in more than three years.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil July futures closed yesterday’s session at 65.56 USD per barrel and now trading a bit lower at 65.53 USD at 6:00 GMT. Furthermore, Brent Oil August futures closed on Friday at 76.38 USD per barrel and currently trading at 76.14 USD at 6:00 GMT.

Wheat:

CBOT July Wheat futures were mixed and then cooled down at the end of Friday’s session caused by profit-takers stepping in to capture some of the gains. Wheat July contracts closed Friday’s session at 5.20-3/4 USD per bushel and currently trading at 5.22-3/4 USD a bushel at 6:00 GMT.

Drought concerns in some significant production regions in Ukraine could cause Wheat harvest to come in 15 percent to 30 percent lower than initial estimates. Furthermore, in Russia, the expected drought could downgrade its Wheat production forecasts from 2.701 billion bushels to 2.627 billion bushels.

Analyst estimates that the U.S. all Wheat production for 2018/2019 will be slightly higher form May estimate of 1.821 billion bushels to 1.822 billion bushels.

Initial volume estimates were down by more than 35 percent from Thursday’s final count of 249,018 contracts to read 184,843 CBOT contracts.

Corn:

CBOT July Corn Futures are posting modest losses this morning, but that’s enough to take July futures to a four-month low to close at 3.78/2 USD per bushel at 6:00 GMT.

The shift in market enthusiasm comes despite overall positive news about demand. Export sales last week totaled 49.6 million bushels, including 33 million of old crop, keeping the pace of commitments above USDA’s forecast for the 2017 marketing year.

The preliminary report from the CBOT showed volumes 37 percent higher at 652,689 through open interest fell 30,199 on massive fund liquidation.

Soybean:

CBOT July Soybean Futures broke to new 10-month lows overnight, as the pullback in prices shows no sign of ending just yet to trade at 9.69/4 USD per bushel at 6:00 GMT.

Export sales of just 7.2 million bushels showed few signs of renewed Chinese interest. China imported around 355 million bushels of soybeans in May, 1 percent more than last year, leaving the year-to-date total only 3 percent higher. Purchases from the U.S. are down 20 percent.

The preliminary report from the CBOT showed the daily futures volume nearly doubling yesterday to 423,263 while open interest was up 6,676 despite heavy fund liquidation.