Lower overnight markets and bearish export news are expected to keep pressure on the CME Group corn, soybean markets Thursday.
The Early Calls for the commodities on Thursday, December 20, 2012, are lower. Corn is seen opening 5-6 cents lower, soybeans 10-12 cents lower, and wheat 10-12 cents lower.
In overnight trading, the March corn futures contract traded 6 cents lower at $6.96 per bushel. Jan. soybean futures traded 11 cents lower at $14.25 per bushel, and March wheat traded 11 cents lower at $7.94. For Jan. soybean meal futures, the contract traded $4.40 per short ton lower at $432.10. Jan. soybean oil futures traded $0.14 lower at $48.27.
The outside markets are favorable for Thursday's grain trade. The real factors driving the calls will be the lower overnight markets.
USDA released a bearish Weekly Export Sales Report Thursday. For corn, sales totaled 120,200 mt vs the trade's expectations of between 375,000-550,000 metric tons (mt).
USDA pegged U.S. soybean sales at 629,900 mt vs. the trade's expectations of 650,000-850,000 mt.
For wheat, U.S. sales combined for a total of 671,100 mt vs. the trade's expectations of 400,000-600,000 mt.
Separately, the USDA announced Thursday that China has canceled 540,000 mt worth of U.S. soybean purchases, originally scheduled for delivery in 2012-13. This news follows an announcement earlier this week of a 300,000 mt cancellation of U.S. soybean sales.
