DTN Midday Grain Comments 12/15 11:49

DTN Midday Grain Comments 12/15 11:49 Soybeans Higher; Corn, Wheat Lower at Midday Soybeans are higher at midday but have a weak tone. Corn and wheat are struggling. By David Fiala DTN Contributing Analyst General Comments The U.S. stock market indices are higher with the Dow futures up 140. The interest rate products are higher. The dollar index is 150 points higher. Energies are lower with crude down $0.70. Livestock is mostly lower. Precious metals are lower with gold down $36.20. CORN Corn trade is 3 cents lower at midday with wheat dragging trade down after some early strength. Ethanol margins are very positive with improvement this week, but the weaker energy values have narrowed this a bit. Feed grain exports are expected to remain solid even if they aren't hitting the daily wires with export sales at 1.52 million metric tons on the weekly report. On the March chart, support is at the 50-day major moving average at $3.56, then the $3.41 3/4 2-month low. Resistance is at the $3.64 one-month high. Corn trade remains near the upper end of the range, and we suspect good amounts of buy stops are above the four-month highs. SOYBEANS Soybean trade is 3 to 7 cents higher at midday with good commercial demand and the Argentina forecast edging a bit drier overnight. Meal is $1 to $2 higher, and oil is 5 to 15 points higher. The South American forecast looks to bring better rain to Argentina over the weekend, but some of the amounts appear lighter on the overnight forecast. Brazil remains in good shape overall. China remains active on the daily export wire with another 132,000 metric tons of solds bought, with weekly sales strong at 2.01 million metric tons of soybeans, 200,000 metric tons of meal, and 40,300 of oil. Basis has remained fairly stable this week. On the January chart the 50-day at $10.05 is support, with resistance the 10-day just below $10.35, which we have tested this morning after moving through the 20-day at $10.29. This was the first close below the 20-day since Nov. 18. WHEAT Wheat trade is 5 to 11 cents lower at midday with the sharply stronger dollar bringing selling back this morning after quiet overnight session. The cold extended forecast and short-covering could continue to add support, but is being overshadowed this morning. The Southern Hemisphere harvest should continue to move along with good yields adding to the world supply situation. The spread action is favoring protein today, with better protein action the last couple of days. The weekly export sales were decent at 531,300 metric tons. On the KC March chart support is the 10-day at $4.10 with resistance the 50-day at $4.25. David Fiala is a DTN contributing analyst and the President of FuturesOne and a registered adviser. He can be reached at dfiala@futuresone.com Follow Fiala on Twitter @davidfiala (BAS) Copyright 2016 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.