A slightly lower start is forecast this am, down roughly 2-4 wheat, corn and beans. The $ is a shade lower at this time, not enough to influence the grains very much.

Dec futures contracts expire at noon US central time, today.

The National Oilseed Processors Association Nov crush was much higher than expected at 160.3 million bushels. Oil stocks were 2.411 billion lbs, not as high as might have been expected given the much larger than expected crush. Corn harvest progress this afternoon is likely to be around 91-94% done, meaning as much as 1 billion bushels of corn could still be unharvested and in danger of a quality downgrade or being lost altogether. It is widely thought corn acreage needs to increase roughly 2 million acres next year over this year's 86.4 million acres due to increased ethanol production and demand. That thinking helped push corn prices higher last week as higher prices will lead to increased acreage.

A Chinese government official said China could release bean or rapeseed oil stocks to ensure supplies and stabilize prices. This weighed on bean oil and bean prices in the Dalian, China futures market today.

Argentina had light, scattered rain overnight. Thur-Sat up to 1" is forecast scattered over the main growing provinces of Santa Fe, Cordoba and Buenos Aires. This should help keep conditions in good shape overall. Up to 1.5" of scattered rain fell in the main growing areas of Brazil over the weekend. More is forecast this week. This rain won't be welcome in southern Brazil, which remains too wet but it will be welcome in the north, helping keep conditions good overall.

Up to 1" of moisture fell in the eastern midwest over the weekend but the western half of the belt was generally dry. Only light, scattered precipitation is forecast this week, which could help late corn harvesting.