Grains are mostly lower at midday:

July Corn – 6 1/2 cents/bu (7.62 3/4)

August Soybeans -7 3/4 cents/bu (16.20)

July Chi Wheat -14 1/4 cents/bu (10.71 3/4)

CAD$ -0.00290 (77.36)

Crude Oil +1.08 (122.01)

This morning has been a very risk-off day. After the tumble seen yesterday in the equities market, stocks have failed to make big moves one way or another and have been flip-flopping. We are now in a position where grains are waiting for large fundamental news to push us out of this sideways movement.

The US government has been in talks and is anticipated to increase interest rates by ¾ of a point by as early as tomorrow.

Earlier today we saw an export sale announcement of 148,000 tonnes of corn sold to Mexico (103,000 for 21/22 and 45,000 for 22/23). This was not enough to push the corn into the green.

Although good export news is positive for corn, good supply news is not, leaving corn close to unchanged. Crop Consultant Dr. Michael Cordonnier raised his Brazilian corn crop estimate by 3 MMT to 110 MMT, noting that while yields on early harvested safrinha corn in Brazil are poor, Conab again increased its planted acreage figure last week.

Cordonnier also left his Argentine corn estimate unchanged at 49 MMT and raised his bean estimate by 1 MMT to 42 MMT. He also raised his Brazilian bean estimate by 1 MMT to 123 MMT.