DTN Early Word Grains 12/18 05:56

DTN Early Word Grains 12/18 05:56 Dollar Lower, Grains Quiet Early Friday March corn was fractionally lower, January soybeans were 1 cent higher, and March Chicago wheat was fractionally lower. By Darin Newsom DTN Senior Analyst 6:00 a.m. CME Globex: March corn was fractionally lower, January soybeans were 1 cent higher, and March Chicago wheat was fractionally lower. CME Globex Recap: Global currency markets were taken for a "wild ride" overnight as the yen initially fell, then rallied against the U.S. dollar following new easement policies by the Bank of Japan. Early Friday morning sees the U.S. dollar index giving back some of Thursday's impressive rally. Grains were mixed with corn and wheat down while global oilseed markets were higher. Crude oil continued its slide as gold tried to recover some of the previous day's losses. OUTSIDE MARKETS: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 253.25 points lower Thursday at 17,495.84. The NASDAQ Composite was down 68.58 points at 5,002.55. DJIA futures were 44 points lower overnight. Asian markets were mostly lower with the Nikkei down 366.76 points at 18,986.80 and China's Shanghai Composite was off 1.03 points. European markets were also mostly lower. The U.S. dollar index was down 0.302 at 98.968. Crude oil was $0.45 lower at $34.50 while Brent crude was $0.21 lower at $36.85. February gold was $5.90 higher at $1,055.50. Dalian soybean futures and Malaysian palm oil futures were higher.