US Midwest spot basis bids for corn and soyabeans were mostly steady to firmer at interior locations and weaker along the rivers Tuesday morning amid slow farmer sales after a three-day weekend, dealers said. Many processors and elevators, plus the Chicago agricultural markets, were closed on Monday to observe the US Fourth of July holiday.
Higher barge freight costs pressured bids for corn and soyabeans along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, dealers said.
Spot basis bids for soft red winter wheat were firmer in parts of Indiana, where rain delayed the harvest late last week, dealers said.
Processors and elevators want to ensure adequate supplies because US farmers are projected to harvest their smallest SRW wheat crop in more than a decade.
Farmer sales were slow to non-existent, despite traders' expectations that the Chicago Board of Trade futures market would open higher today.
Farmers remained bullish on weather forecasts that showed mainly hot and dry weather for the next eight to 14 days, dealers said.
"They're just going to sit around and see if they can get back some of what we lost last week," said an Ohio dealer, referring to the slide in CBOT futures prices last week on predictions of more favourable crop weather.
Soyabean futures were expected to open 10 to 15 cents per bushel higher, traders said. Corn was expected to open 2 to 4 cents higher and SRW wheat were expected to open 2 to 3 cents per bushel higher.