EUR / USD index remained stable at 1.1640. WTI crude oil rose significantly to $ 48.40 / barrel.

Oil prices continued its rise on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia promised to limit the exports next month, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has called on its members to observe the production constraint agreement in order to master oversupply. The growth was also backed by the data that growth in North American platforms shows signs of stabilization.

Yesterday Chicago's crop prices declined under the influence of the changing weather in the United States. In some places in the central and northern parts of the country rainfall and temperatures have fallen. These changes shifted the focus from the drought to a relatively normal weather for the crop development. Data from farmers in the country indicate good crops of corn and soybeans. Typically, farmers give much lower ratings than the official one, but now it is not so. Precipitation makes it difficult to harvest the wheat, but so far there are no problems.

In Canada it keeps to be warm and mostly dry. The damage to the crops continues to grow. The weather in Australia also remains dry. News from these two countries will oppose to the improvements in the US.
In Russia, 26.7 million tonnes of new crops were harvested at 32.7 million tonnes a year earlier. SovEkon expects grain exports in August to reach 4.0-4.3 million tonnes, which will be more than August 2016.

As for the corn in Chicago, there is a prolonged reduction in the long positions due to the changes in weather conditions. At the same time, the USDA has lowered US crops estimates, but this reflects data for an already past period. This rainfall will be reflected in the assessment data i the coming weeks. The pollination of corn in the US will continue until the beginning of August - longer than usual, given the heterogeneous conditions for the crop development. It is noteworthy that nowadays corn crops in the US are at quite different stages of their development, something that is not usual in other years.

The current rainfall will also affect the condition of  the soybeans in the United States. Important will be the rainfall in August, which is now expected to be less than normal. So the yields are expected to be lowered in the coming weeks.

Yesterday Egypt held the fourth wheat purchase auction in July. 420,000 tonnes of wheat were purchased from Russia (300,000), Ukraine (60,000) and Romania (60,000). At the very beginning of the season, Egypt was buying a large amount of wheat. Almost all purchases are from the Black Sea region - mostly Russia. Against the previous auction prices rose by 2 - 3 USD / tonne.  It is noteworthy that the French wheat was presented at the auction, which failed to be among the winning offers. There was an offer from the United States, but it was much above the other suggestions.

Wheat price – yesterday wheat futures in Chicago declined by 8 – 14.75 cents/bushel.

Soybeans price – yesterday the prices of soybeans futures in Chicago went down by  12 – 17.5 cents/bushel.

Corn price– yesterday corn futures in Chicago fell by 6 to 8.5 cents / bushel. Market analyst in the US lowered its forecast for the average yield of corn in the country in 2017  to 163.5 bushels / acre. On Thursday China will sell 800,000 tonnes of corn from the state reserve and on Friday another 3.65 million tonnes from  2013 crop.
In the past two weeks it turned that the price drops in Chicago are not in line with those in Paris. This is because the price levels of the US wheat were too high compared to their main competitors. Yet the prices are not at the level that the US wheat will be competitive.