Chicago Closing Comments

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 22:19 | Categorized as

01/03/11 -- Soybeans: Mar CBOT beans closed 10 1/4 cents higher at USD13.67 1/2 a bushel, Mar soymeal rose USD1.60 to USD358.00 and Mar oil climbed 30 points to 57.07. Harvest delays in Brazil, strength in the crude oil market and a weaker tone to the US dollar added support. A drier and warmer pattern for Argentina was also modestly bullish, even so Michael Cordonnier yesterday upped his Argy crop estimate by 1.5 MMT to 48.5 MMT.

Corn: CBOT Mar corn rose 4 3/4c to USD7.27 1/4 a bushel, CBOT May corn was up 4 1/2c to USD7.35 1/2 a bushel. Funds bought an estimated 5,000 contracts on the day. Firmer crude oil on the back of the situation in the Middle East lent support. Other than that news was limited. China sold only 165 TMT of the 1.2 MMT of corn on offer at this week's government auction.

Wheat: CBOT May wheat dropped 6 3/4c to USD8.10 1/4 a bushel, KCBT May fell 1/2c to USD9.12 and MGEX May declined 1 1/2c to USD9.39 1/2. Again fresh news was lacking. Japan is bidding for 129,000 MT of all US wheat on Thursday. US winter wheat crop conditions are poor, although the market seemed to be expecting that. China's drought situation has improved significantly over the weekend. ABARES said that the world will produce 675 MMT of wheat in 2011.