Early Call On CBOT

24/11/10 -- The overnight grains closed steadier across the board, with beans around 10-12c higher, wheat up 6-7c and corn 4-5c firmer.

Crude oil is a little firmer and the dollar weaker as fears have eased that North and South Korea are headed for all out war. China and the US have said that they are committed to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

Dryness concerns in Argentina are growing, with some reports suggesting that a lack of rainfall in the forecast for the remainder of the week will produce a two month rainfall deficit of 7 inches across some fields.

China's moves to tighten domestic fiscal policy aren't seen as having too much detrimental impact on demand for food commodities. Oil World predicts a 4 MMT increase in Chinese soybean imports for 2010/11.

Just to reiterate the issue the USDA today reported the sale of 780,000 MT of soybeans to their biggest customer.

The US October Census crush was at the low end of expectations at 157.2 million bushels compared with the average trade estimate fo 158.6 million.

China sold 30% of the 1.1 MMT of wheat reserves offered at it's regular weekly auction. Yesterday it sold 23% of the 1.5 MMT of corn up grabs.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: Beans up 10 to 12 cents, corn up 4 to 6 cents, and wheat up 6 to 8 cents.