Grain and oilseed prices were mixed Friday following a U.S. Department of Agriculture report that forecast higher 2010-11 ending stocks than analysts had expected.
The forecasts were within the range of analysts’ estimates, but were lower then the average. U.S. wheat and corn stocks were higher than in the previous month’s forecast, but soybean was less.
USDA put year end U.S. corn stocks at 832 million bushels compared to the average of analysts’ estimate of 806 million, as polled by Reuters News Service.
Soybean stocks were 165 million bu. compared to the analysts’ estimate of 160 million and wheat was 858 million compared to 839 million.
USDA did not change its forecast for soybean production in Brazil and Argentina.
Futures prices were bouncing around Friday morning and were not making a major move up or down. At 10 a.m. central time, nearby canola was up 40 cents per tonne from Thursday’s close, Chicago soybeans were down 3.5 US cents per bu., corn was down 0.5 cents, oats up 3.75 cents and Minneapolis wheat was up 11.25 cents.
While the USDA report was slightly negative for prices, support came from continuing rain in water logged wheat fields of eastern Australia and dry weather was forecast for Argentina.
