Chicago Close

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 07:46 | Categorized as

22/03/11 -- Soybeans: May 11 soybeans closed at USD13.65 1/2, up 2 1/2 cents; May 11 soybean meal closed unchanged at USD366.40; May 11 soybean oil closed at 55.86, down 2 points. There wasn't a lot doing ahead of the USDA acreage report due out on March 31st along with the quarterly grains stocks report. Oil World reduced it's Brazilian soybean crop estimate to 69-70 MMT due to rains cutting yields in some areas. The market keeps talking of harvest delays in Brazil, although the current pace of 44% done is actually slightly ahead of the five year average.

Corn: May 11 corn closed at USD6.86 3/4, up 1/4 cent; Dec 11 corn closed at USD6.12 1/4, up 2 3/4 cents. Corn recovered from being 8 to 10 cents lower overnight on the USDA not announcing any corn sales specifically to China, or even any substantial tonnage to "unknown" destinations. Still, it seems unlikely that we will see a lot of downside ahead of the USDA acreage report at the end of the month. Crude oil lent support, trading higher on the back of supply disruptions due to the Libyan conflict.

Wheat: May 11 CBOT wheat closed at USD7.22 1/4, up 1 1/4 cents; May 11 KCBT Wheat closed at USD8.45, up 3 cents; May 11 MGEX Wheat closed at USD8.66, down 3 1/4 cents. As with beans and corn, wheat recovered from being 10-15 cents lower overnight to close little changed. The USDA peg Kansas winter wheat at 37% poor/very poor, whilst in Oklahoma 43% of the crop is rated in the bottom two categories and in Texas things are even worse at 56% poor/very poor. Nigeria bought 160,000 MT of US HRW wheat. Japan, Sudan, South Korea and Jordan are also in the market.