Corn, Soy, Wheat Seen Higher as Hot Weather Cuts Crop Conditions

What follows are opening calls for U.S. grain and oilseed markets, which open at 5 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade.

-- Corn futures may open 5 cents to 10 cents a bushel higher on the Chicago Board of Trade after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that hot weather cut crop conditions for a fourth straight week, Dave Marshall, a farm marketing adviser for Toay Commodity Futures Group LLC, said by telephone from Nashville, Illinois. About 48 percent of U.S. corn was rated good or excellent, down from 56 percent a week earlier, government data showed after the close of trading today.

-- Soybean futures may open 5 cents to 10 cents a bushel higher in Chicago as 45 percent of the crop earned the government’s top ratings, down from 53 percent the prior week, Marshall said. Soybean-oil futures are expected to open 0.2 cent to 0.3 cent higher per pound, and soybean-meal futures may open $2 to $4 higher per 2,000 pounds.

-- Wheat futures may open 3 cents to 5 cents a bushel higher on the CBOT, the Kansas City Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange after the USDA lowered the ratings for the spring crop, grown in the U.S. northern Plains, to 71 percent good or excellent from 77 percent a week earlier, Marshall said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in Chicago at tdreibus@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net.