A lower start is expected this am, roughly 4-5 in wheat and corn, 2-3 in beans. The $ is steady, not providing any guidance for the grains.

Jan bean, meal and oil futures expire today at noon, US central time and the CFTC is expected to announce their energy market position limit policy at the same time. The big question is will the CFTC exempt index funds from these limits? If they don't, it could have a bearish impact on grain futures, as I explained previously.

The NOPA Dec crush was out this am. It was higher than expected at 164.4 million bushels with oil stocks also higher than expected, 2.594 billion lbs, as a result of the higher crush.

Weekly export sales were slow for wheat, 182,000 tonnes, and corn, 327,000 tonnes. Bean sales were in line, 754,000 tonnes but product sales were much higher than expected, 357,000 tonnes of meal and 50,000 tonnes of oil.

Today will be the last day of index fund buying at the close with the possible exception of corn, where index fund buying could also be seen late tomorrow since they didn't buy any on Tuesday, the day corn was locked limit down.

Argentina was mostly dry yesterday and this pattern will continue through Sunday before scattered rain falls Monday. Warmer and mostly dry weather will then resume Tue-Sat next week. This warmer, dry pattern needs to be watched. Conditions are very favorable now but that could soon change if a dry pattern persists along with warmer than usual temps. Brazil saw up to 1.5" of widely scattered rain the last 24 hours. More of the same is forecast in the northern state of Mato Grasso the next 3-5 days. The southern states of Parana and Rio Grande will be dry today-Saturday with rain expected to return Sun-Tue.