DTN Early Word Grains 02/19 05:55

DTN Early Word Grains 02/19 05:55 IFF - It's Finally Friday March corn was fractionally lower, March soybeans were 1 cent 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 1 cent lower, and March Chicago wheat was 2 cents lower. CME Globex Recap: The grain markets are finally approaching the end of what has seemed to be a long holiday shortened week. Overnight trade once again found contracts posting small losses with even the new-crop Kansas City July contract down a couple of cents. Outside markets were also lower with crude oil, gold, the U.S. dollar index, and DJIA futures also in the red early Friday. OUTSIDE MARKETS: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 40.40 points lower at 16,413.43, the NASDAQ Composite was down 46.52 points at 4,487.54, and the S&P 500 fell 8.99 points to close at 1,917.83 Thursday. DJIA futures were 23 points lower overnight. Asian markets were mostly lower with the Nikkei down 229.63 points (1.4%) and China's Shanghai Composite was off 2.87 points (0.1%). European markets were also lower with London's FTSE 100 down 7.71 points (0.1%). The U.S. dollar index was 0.099 lower at 96.852. Crude oil was down $0.60 at $30.17 while Brent crude fell $0.58 to $33.70. April gold was $0.60 lower at $1,225.70. China's Dalian soybean futures were mostly higher while Malaysian palm oil futures were mostly lower.