Early Call On CBOT

28/10/10 -- The overnight grains closed firmer, with wheat leading the way up 10-12c, beans closed up 6-8c with corn 4-5c higher.

Weekly export sales from the USDA were very strong once again at just over 2 MMT, with the Chinese taking their now customary three quarters of that. Wheat and corn sales were in line with expectations. There was no sign of the widely touted Chinese presence in corn.

The September US soybean census crush came in as expected at 10.4 million bushels, compared to 114.0 million last year and 128.1 last month.

US weather remains a concern for winter wheat. "La Nina is nearing its strongest point. Long range models predict La Nina will continue to intensify over the next 45- 60 days, then then level off and last through at least next spring. These same models say La Nina will be one of the strongest in the past 100 years," say QT Weather.

European markets are sharply higher after Germany doubled it's maximum inclusion rate for bioethanol in fuel sold at the pumps to 10%. Unconfirmed rumours are circulating today that the Ukraine may extend it's export ban/quota system to include rapeseed and sunseed.

China continues to import soybeans as if each tonne comes with a free iPad, at current rates even some analysts estimates of an import requirement of 60MMT in 2011 might be too low!

On top of the USDA's weekly export sales, they also today reported a further 305,000 MT of soybeans sold to unknown under the daily reporting system.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn up 3-5c, beans up 5-7c, wheat up 10-12c.