Unless signs of demand improvement show up in this morning's USDA Weekly Export Sales data, lower overnight follow-through trading is expected to keep the CME Group commodities lower Friday.
The early calls for the commodities on Friday, January 4, 2012, are mostly lower. Corn is seen opening 1-2 cents lower. Soybeans are seen 1-2 cents higher, and wheat mixed.
In overnight trading, the March corn futures contract traded 1 cent lower at $6.88 per bushel. January soybean futures traded 1 cent higher at $14.04 per bushel, and March wheat traded 1 cent lower at $7.54. For January soybean meal futures, the contract traded $1.60 per short ton higher at $407.20. January soybean oil futures traded 26 cents lower at $49.95.
The outside markets are unfavorable for Friday's grain trade. The real factors driving the calls will be the mixed overnight markets and the export sales numbers at 7:30am CT.
