US MIDDAY: corn steady

Basis bids for corn shipped by barge to the US Gulf Coast were mostly steady to firm early on Monday while soybean and wheat basis bids were unchanged, traders said. Lower Chicago Board of Trade futures markets limited farmer selling interest, which kept a floor under basis values. Spot barge freight rates were steady to weak on limited demand for empty vessels.
The USDA on Monday said 920,708 tonnes of US corn and 148,498 tonnes of soybeans were inspected for export last week, both within the range of trade forecasts. Wheat inspections of 298,048 tonnes were near the low end of trade expectations. Barges of corn loaded in the first half of August were bid about steady at 50 cents a bushel above CBOT September
futures. Last-half August bids were a penny higher at 51 cents over futures. Soybean barges loaded in the first half of this month were bid 97 cents per bushel above CBOT November futures while last-half August bids were 77 cents over. Soft red winter wheat barges loaded in August were bid steady at 35 cents above CBOT September futures. August hard red winter wheat barge bids held steady at 110 cents above September HRW futures.