Week-long holidays in China to celebrate the Lunar New Year are underway, with some other markets in Asia also closed or trading only half-sessions overnight. That slowed volume in Chicago, where futures posted modest losses across the board ahead of the morning break. While traders wonder about corn exports to Mexico and Chinese soybean buying, sales reported Thursday by USDA were better than expected. Net new bookings of wheat were a surprise, helping Minneapolis surge higher.

Senior Editor Bryce Knorr offers his insight into overnight trade, listen using the audio tool on this page.

Bryce Knorr first joined Farm Futures Magazine in 1987. In addition to analyzing and writing about the commodity markets, he is a former futures introducing broker and is a registered Commodity Trading Advisor. He conducts Farm Futures exclusive surveys on acreage, production and management issues and is one of the analysts regularly contracted by business wire services before major USDA crop reports. Besides the Morning Call on www.FarmFutures.com he writes weekly reviews for corn, soybeans, and wheat that include selling price targets, charts and seasonal trends. His other weekly reviews on basis, energy, fertilizer and financial markets and feature price forecasts for key crop inputs. A journalist with 38 years of experience, he received the Master Writers Award from the American Agricultural Editors Association.