Markets Maintain Busy Tone

CHICAGO - Nov 6/07 - SNS -- International agriculture commodity markets retained their busy undertone, even though there was not a considerable amount of fresh business reported overnight.

The USDA's weekly crop progress update revealed this year's soybean harvest advanced more quickly than expected during the past week and is now 92% complete, versus 90% last year and the recent 10-year average of 91%.

The corn harvest also made a little more progress than expected by the trade, with the USDA reporting 86% of the crop is now in the bin, compared to 79% at this time last year and the recent 10-year average of 83%.

The USDA said 53% of the winter wheat acreage in the United States is rated good to excellent, down from 55% last week and 59% last year. The 10 year average for this time of year is 60%. One of the biggest declines was in the key winter wheat producing state of Kansas, where the percentage of crop rated good to excellent dropped seven points to 55%.

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