Friday May 29th, 2009

A tumbling U.S. dollar drove gains Friday in corn futures, which ended at new recent highs. July corn ended up 7 1/2 cents to $4.36 1/4 per bushel, and December corn ended up 7 cents to $4.59 1/4. For the week July Corn gained 19 cents for the week while Dec corn gained 20¾ cents. For the week, July Beans gained 53½ cents and November gained 86¾ cents. The market climbed early on technical buying and support from the weaker dollar and stronger crude oil. "Looking at a chart of crude oil and the U.S. Dollar show an exact inverse relationship to each other and pretty well explains the market today," according to one trader. Trouble getting the crop into the ground in the eastern U.S. Corn Belt remains a concern of the market.

Most expect planting progress to be around 91% to 92% in Monday's crop progress report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Commodity funds added to their long positions in corn and soybeans and trimmed their net short position in wheat, reflecting a bullish attitude about agriculture futures, according to the Commitment of Traders report released today. Funds are currently long just over 104,000 contracts of corn and long about 89,000 contracts of soybeans.

U.S. soybean export sales have exceeded the government's full-year forecast three months early, setting the stage for a broadly expected upward revision in the government's projection. Strong demand from China, the world's top importer, pushed the year-to-date sales for the current marketing year that ends Aug. 31 to 1.2405 billion bushels, just above USDA's latest forecast for 1.24 billion bushels.

~Have a good weekend