Wheat leads the morning strength.

Wheat traces lifted the in the morning hours as Argentina lowered its wheat crop by another 300,000 MTs to 11.5 MMTs, according to the Rosario Grain Exchange. They left corn production at 56 MMTs with soybeans at 48 MMTs. Just 49% of the Argentine soybean crop has been seated versus 65% last year. Corn and soybeans worked to be mostly steady by the morning close. Export sales data out at 7:30 had corn, soybeans, and wheat all just above the top side of trade estimates, with soybeans near 3 MMTs after last week's large sales.

Today the NOPA releases the November Soybean Crush data at 11:00 a.m. CT with the average estimate at 181-182 Mil Bu, which would be a record large number for November. A year ago, the number was 179.5 Mil Bu. Will be watched is soy oil stocks to measure the renewable diesel offtake for feedstocks. Estimates are for soyoil stocks at 1,586 Mil pounds, which would be up 5% from October but down 10% from last year.

The South American forecast remains consistent with optimum weather conditions for temperatures and rainfall through most of Central and Northern Brazil, while the southern portion of Brazil in RGDS and Argentina maintain dryness into December 23. Shower chances start to enter Western Argentina around Christmas, but the east looks to remain dry in the 11-15 day model. The market is trying to balance potential production increases for Brazil and Paraguay and the potential losses in Argentina that still equal out to strong production of beans out of South America as a whole.

Live and feeder cattle prices were lower on Wednesday, with a softer outlook offered this morning with the weaker equity markets. February cattle failed to test contract highs yesterday morning and profit-taking. The market went from higher to lower during the session. No cash trade is yet to develop while fed supplies are tight and feed yards in the South have showlists priced $2-4 higher than last week. Cattle slaughtered midweek is 364,000 head, down 18,000 from last week and 4000 head more than a year ago. Box beef tumbled again, with choice falling $4.88 despite the lower slaughter rate while select gained $1.23. The spread has now narrowed to $2 3.28 choice premium.