The CME Group corn, soybeans and wheat prices face unfavorable outside markets Thursday. 

The Early Calls for the commodities on Thursday, January 5, 2012, are lower. Corn is seen opening 4-6 cents lower, soybeans 9-11 cents lower, and wheat 6-8 cents lower.

In overnight trading, the March corn futures contract traded 4 1/2 cents lower at $6.54 1/4 per bushel. March soybean futures traded 9 cents lower at $12.21 per bushel, and March wheat traded 6 cents lower at $6.44. For March soybean meal futures, the contract traded $3.40 per short ton lower at $317.20. March soybean oil futures traded $0.42 lower at $52.61.

The outside markets are unfavorable for Thursday's grain trade. The real factors driving the calls will be the lower overnight markets.

With light hopes of rain relief late in the week, crop-stress reports continue to surface out of South America. In Argentina, they would lose the equivalent of 2.0 million metric tons, each passing week, without rains, according to Marketeye sources in Argentina. 

Brazil's losses are harder to read due to various soil types and weather patterns, the Marketeye source says. "It's a hard guess. But, I would be highly surprised if they harvest 70 mln tons," the source says.

In Paraguay, a more defined crop area,  already 20-25% of the soybean crop is lost," Marketeye's source estimates.

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