DTN Midday Grain Comments 04/03 11:31

DTN Midday Grain Comments 04/03 11:31 Wheat Is the Midday Leader The U.S. stock market indices are firmer at midday with the DOW futures up 190 points. The interest rate products are higher. The dollar index is 15 points higher. Energies are firmer with crude $.50 higher. Livestock trade is mostly lower with hogs seeing the most pressure. Precious metals are mixed with gold down $13. By David Fiala DTN Contributing Analyst General Comments The U.S. stock market indices are firmer at midday with the DOW futures up 190 points. The interest rate products are higher. The dollar index is 15 points higher. Energies are firmer with crude $.50 higher. Livestock trade is mostly lower with hogs seeing the most pressure. Precious metals are mixed with gold down $13. CORN Corn trade is 3-to-5 cents higher at midday with trade testing the higher end of the range again following the lead of wheat. Early fieldwork looks to remain slow for the bulk of the belt, especially for the Mississippi Delta and Ohio Valley with cold wet conditions and cooler than normal temperatures expected to linger. Ethanol margins should remain positive, but ethanol futures saw pressure to start the week with trade flat Tuesday morning. The export wire has been quiet to start the week. On the May chart we are back above all of the major moving averages, with the 20-day at $3.83 first support, with resistance the $3.95 1/4 seven-month high printed just over two weeks ago. SOYBEANS Soybean trade is 8-to-12 cents higher at midday with trade firming back from the weak start on Monday. Meal is $4.00-to-$5.00 higher and oil is 50 to 60 points higher. South American harvest will continue to progress with some late showers in Argentina as the growing season winds down. Trade concerns continue to hang over the market with the threat of further retaliation from China, but action has been quieter Tuesday. Trade will be looking for signs of additional acres, especially with a slow start to planting in the Dakotas on spring wheat. On the May contract, trade is back above the 20-day at $10.39, but failed to hold that area Monday, with further resistance the upper bollinger band at $10.69. WHEAT Wheat trade is 8-to-24 cents higher at midday with KC wheat leading again as initial conditions came in lower than expected. The dollar rallied back from early lows to start the week, but remain in the lower end of the range. Warmer weather for the Black Sea and Continental Europe should help to support growth there. The first winter wheat report had 32% good to excellent, with 38% expected and 30% poor to very poor, with the Pacific Northwest in the best shape, and Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas the worst. On the May KC wheat support is the 10-day at $4.71 that we gapped above overnight then the 50-day at $4.88 as resistance we have edged just above at midday. 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 him on Twitter @davidfiala (BAS) Copyright 2018 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.