January soybeans were 1/2 cent higher late in the overnight session. The dollar index was mostly a bit lower overnight. Palm oil finished near unchanged.

Yesterday's day-long sell off was followed overnight by a minor bounce that was credited to a modest early sell off in the dollar. However, when the dollar rallied to near unchanged overnight, soybeans held their gains. This led some traders to conclude that we have already seen the worst of the weather-related selling in the complex. One trader noted that traders often even up ahead of a weekend in weather markets, and that process could already be underway. Palm oil may have seen similar action overnight with an initial gain followed by a modest sell off to near unchanged to end today's session.

The weather forecast remains favorably dry through the end of next week for the Midwest and northern Delta. In fact, it may have gotten just a bit drier for this region over the past 24 hours.

This week's export sales were in line with expectations in soybeans. Meal and oil were closer to the low end of trade expectations. Cumulative soybean sales stand at 66.1% of the USDA forecast for 2009/2010 versus a 5 year average of 43.0%. Cumulative meal sales stand at 44.7% of the USDA forecast for 2009/2010 versus a 5 year average of 30.3%. Cumulative oil sales stand at 44.0% of the USDA forecast for 2009/2010 versus a 5 year average of 18.9%.

India meal exports increased sharply for the second month in a row to 309,886 tonnes with demand picking up from China, Vietnam and South Korea.

Most traders see a higher production estimate for next week's USDA report even with significant damage expected for the delta and Arkansas crop. Many see the crop about 15-20 million bushels higher with some down as much as 100 million bushels and others seeing increases of more than 100 million bushels from last months forecast of 3.25 billion bushels.

Deliveries against the November soybean crop were 196 contracts overnight with the total for the month to-date now at 632 contracts.