Early Call On Chicago

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 15:00 | Categorized as

02/03/11 -- The overnight grains closed mixed with beans around 12-14c higher, corn up 2-4c and wheat mostly 2-5c weaker.

Rain in some of the parched US Plains and China was behind wheat's mini fall from grace. China's drought affected wheat area has now fallen to under 2 million hectares, according to latest reports. It was 7.5 million at the beginning of February.

NYMEX crude is a dollar higher, now over USD100/barrel whilst Brent is currently around USD115.50/barrel.

Beans are up on rain disruptions in Brazil. Oil World raised its Argy soybean production estimate to 48.5 MMT (up 0.5 MMT) and left their Brazilian output unchanged at a record 71.5-72.0 MMT.

Argentina is seen dry this week, rain will be needed soon for soybean pod filling, say Martell Crop Projections.

The USDA have confirmed the sale of 220,000 MT of US wheat to unknown.

Private trade early estimates on US spring planting intentions will start to filter through in the next couple of weeks, before the USDA's initial stab at calling this season's acreage at the end of the month.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: beans up 12-15c, corn up 3-5c, wheat flat to up 2c.