Grains are mostly lower at midday:

Mar Corn – 4 ¼  cents/bu (5.86 )

Jan Soybeans + 2 ¼  cents/bu (12.61 ¾ )

Mar Chi Wheat – 30 ¼  cents/bu (7.56 ¾  )

Cdn $ -0.00300 (77.50 cents)

WTI Crude Oil -0.22/barrel (70.51)

Grains gave up early gains in the day trading session, as fears over the most recent COVID variant’s spread raised concerns over the potential negative impact on demand for commodities.  The Omicron variant is causing some governments to impose restrictions on travel along with further restrictions on the capacity of restaurants, businesses, etc.  It remains to be seen how this ultimately plays out, but the USA reported over 200,000 new COVID cases today, it’s highest daily total in over 11 months, and that has spooked buyers from extending long positions in corn and beans.

NOPA released it’s October USA soybean crush data today, with usage pegged at 179.462 million bushels of soybeans last month.  That was well below the average trade guess of 181.64 million bushels.  Soyoil stocks were surprisingly lower @ 1.832 billion pounds, roughly 70 million pounds less than the average trade guess.

The Department of Energy released it’s weekly report on petroleum stocks this morning.  It showed that crude oil stocks in America declined by 6 ½ million barrels in the last week to 1.0272 billion barrels.  While crude oil stocks fell slightly, ethanol stocks grew by 400,000 barrels to 20.9 million – still 2 million barrels less than at the same time last year.  On the week, ethanol production averaged a robust 1.087 million barrels per day, some 3,000 barrels less than last week, but 130,000 barrels per day more than during the same week last year.

There were no USDA Flash Export Sales reported this morning.