DTN Early Word Grains 02/18 05:57

DTN Early Word Grains 02/18 05:57 Thursday Morning Coming Down March corn was fractionally lower, March soybeans were 2 cents lower, and March Chicago wheat was 2 cents lower. By Darin Newsom DTN Senior Analyst 6:00 a.m. CME Globex: March corn was fractionally lower, March soybeans were 2 cents lower, and March Chicago wheat was 2 cents lower. CME Globex Recap: Grains were lower overnight, giving back some of Wednesday's gains. Most of the attention remains on outside markets with crude oil extending its rally on Wednesday's headline of Iran supporting the recent move to freeze output. A solid rally in crude oil has gone hand in hand with gains in global equity markets, with DJIA futures higher again early Thursday morning. Meanwhile, both the U.S. dollar index and gold are lower again. OUTSIDE MARKETS: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 257.42 points higher at 16,453.83, the NASDAQ Composite was up 98.10 points at 4,534.06, and the S&P 500 rallied 31.24 points to close at 1,926.82 Wednesday. DJIA futures were 79 points higher overnight. Asian markets were mostly higher with the Nikkei up 360.44 points (2.3%) and China's Shanghai Composite off 4.45 points (0.2%). European markets were also mostly higher though London's FTSE 100 was off 20.10 points (0.3%). The U.S. dollar index was 0.059 higher at 96.845. Crude oil was up $0.97 at $31.63 while Brent crude rallied $0.87 to $35.37. April gold was $7.90 lower at $1,203.50. China's Dalian soybean futures were mixed while Malaysian palm oil futures were lower.