It was another week of volatility with several surprises for veteran Chicago grain traders, including the strength in July corn most of the week and Friday’s rally in soymeal, when commodity funds flushed more money into Chicago grains and oilseeds.
    But weather jitters were the biggest market drivers this week — everything from worries about dryness in the southeastern United States, some long-term forecasts calling for a high pressure ridge to move into the Midwest, dryness in eastern Europe’s wheat country and too much rain in the U.S. hard red winter wheat belt.
    “It’s all weather — world weather, especially in the U.S.,” said analyst Dan Cekander with Fimat USA in Chicago, referring to what will move the markets next week.
    Cekander is most concerned about all the rain in the southern Plains bread basket, where farmers are trying to harvest hard red winter wheat. It keeps raining, stalling harvest in Texas and Oklahoma and raising fears about crop loss and disease pressure.
    The concerns helped wheat futures buck a seasonal downward trend that occurs as the harvest expands.
    That said, traders will be focused on the latest weather maps and forecasts.
    “If it rains in the Southeast over the weekend it could stimulate some selling,” one trader said. But he quickly added that the soybean market is technically strong.
    Top soils are drying out in the eastern Midwest for the developing corn and soybean crops. According to the Midwestern Climate Center, top soils are especially dry in Ohio, Indiana and southern Illinois. But there’s plenty of moisture west of the Mississippi River — maybe too much, Chicago traders said.
    They are looking for USDA to drop its corn condition ratings by 1-3 points in Monday’s crop progress report from the current 78 percent good-to-excellent mark.
    Soybean ratings could be as high as 70 percent good to excellent.