DTN Midday Grain Comments 03/02 11:25

DTN Midday Grain Comments 03/02 11:25 Grains Trending Lower at Midday Soybeans are flat, corn and wheat lower at midday. By David Fiala DTN Contributing Analyst General Comments The U.S. stock market indices are lower at midday with the Dow futures down 300 points. The interest rate products are higher. The dollar index is 25 points lower. Energies are lower with crude down 0.35. Livestock trade is lower. Precious metals are mixed with gold up $15.00. CORN Corn trade is flat to 2 cents lower at midday with trade still testing the upper end of the range. December has traded to a new high for the move up to $4.05 and remains above $4.03. Ethanol margins remain positive with some narrowing as the energy complex pulls back from the recent highs with corn working higher. Double-crop areas in Brazil look to build some moisture in the coming days, will keep planting slow. Argentine weather remains tough which remains one of the most talked about subjects preventing selling. On the May chart support is at the 200-day at $3.80 1/2 that we were able to close above Wednesday. Resistance is now tough to point to, other than round $3.90 or $4 if short covering becomes more active. This could be a wild end to the week. SOYBEANS Soybean trade is narrowly mixed at midday with trade 14 cents off the overnight highs with the front months continuing to lead on concerns about the South American crop and strong crush margins. Meal is $5 to $6 higher and oil is 20 to 30 points higher. The weather pattern looks to keep Argentina dry with the first relief coming at midweek, with Brazil generally seeing ok moisture. Crush margins are at near record levels as we see crush capacity get maxed out domestically, with meal values pushing back through $400 a ton, and filling the downside gap left in 2016 before pulling back. The daily wire has sales of 198,000 metric tons to China, and 121,000 to unknown, and 20,000 of oil to unknown. On the May contract, support is the 10-day moving average at $10.50, with resistance the $10.82 1/2, which is the 6-month high scored this morning. WHEAT Wheat trade is 5 to 15 cents lower at midday with trade taking a bit of a breather after scoring new highs yesterday. The extended forecast continues to be short on moisture the western wheat belt, with warmer temps helping the crop to exit dormancy. The dollar index has collapsed back below 90 after challenging 91 yesterday. Black Sea origin values have risen on the export market, but will likely maintain their edge in the near term even as they move over $209 a ton. On the May Kansas City wheat support is at the 10-day at $5.03, with trade above all other levels of resistance for now. David Fiala is a DTN contributing analyst and the President of FuturesOne and a registered Advisor. He can be reached at dfiala@futuresone.com Follow him on Twitter @davidfiala (BAS) Copyright 2018 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.