EU Grains Close

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 18:57 | Categorized as

04/05/11 -- EU grains closed with May London wheat down GBP1.60/tonne to GBP204.40/tonne and with new crop Nov falling GBP3.85 to GBP168.15/tonne. May Paris wheat fell EUR1.50/tonne to EUR247.25/tonne whilst Nov was down EUR5.25/tonne to EUR208.50/tonne.

In Paris, the May/Nov spread has widened from EUR25.75/tonne to EUR38.75/tonne in just a week, whilst in London the difference is less pronounced moving from GBP32.50/tonne to GBP36.25/tonne.

In London however we saw May close at a hefty and unusual GBP5.00/tonne premium to July.

The pound hit a fresh more than 13-month low against a resurgent euro of 1.1079 today. The euro set a new 17-month high against the US dollar. Both the ECB and the BOE are due to announce decisions on interest rates tomorrow.

Some rain relief may be on the cards for the UK this weekend, although France and Germany are likely to be less fortunate. Spain and Portugal remain unusually wet.

In the southern hemisphere wheat planting is just about ready to get underway. Australia is expecting another bumper crop in the east under excellent soil moisture profiles, although Western Australia remains dry. Argentina meanwhile looks set for a near record 18 MMT crop of it's own in 2011/12.

Russian spring grain plantings are behind schedule with only 2.65 million hectares seeded as of April 28th, less than 10% of the targeted area.