CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture.com)--The pre-opening prices for the CME Group grain commodities for Thursday, August 18, 2011 are lower. Corn, soybeans are seen opening 8-10 cents lower and wheat 10-12 cents lower. 

In overnight electronic trading, the Dec. corn futures contract traded 8 1/4 cents lower at $7.17 1/4 per bushel. The Nov. soybean futures contract traded 9 1/4 cents lower at $13.57 1/2 per bushel. The Sep. wheat futures contract traded 14  1/4 cents lower at $7.13 1/4. For Dec. soymeal futures, the contract traded $2.70 lower at $358.40 and Dec. soyoil $0.57 lower at $55.67. 

The outside markets are not supportive for Thursday's grain trade. The real factors driving the calls are the lower overnight markets. 

The USDA released mostly market-negative Weekly Export Sales numbers Thursday. 

For corn, weekly sales were reported at 523,800 mt vs. the trade expectations between 700,000-900,000.

Soybean exports were estimated at 421,500 mt vs. the trade's estimate of 550,000-850,000.

USDA pegged the weekly wheat exports at 548,800 mt vs. the trade's estimate of 550,000-650,000.

Soymeal exports were reported at 58,700 mt vs. the trade's estimate of 75,000-125,000. Soyoil sales were pegged at 75,000 vs. the trade's estimate of 25,000-35,000 mt.