Early Call On Chicago
30/08/11 -- The overnight grains finished lower on a lack of follow-through buying with beans, corn and wheat all ending around 8-10 cents weaker.
Crude oil is firmer as is the US dollar. Talk that last night's drop in corn ratings was more than the trade anticipated failed to generate further buying interest, which may be a disappointment to the bulls.
Fresh news is pretty thin on the ground so far, although the USDA have just reported the sale of 102,500 MT of HRW wheat to unknown.
Funds have been massive buyers again of late, so once again the market is becoming saturated with length. With month end looming, and a long weekend lying ahead (Monday is Labour Day) today looks like another Turnaround Tuesday at the moment.
The US Conference Board have just reported consumer confidence plunging to 44.5 in August - the lowest level since April 2009. That's below the lowest in a range of economist's estimates of 45-59 average, and sharply below the 59.2 mark recorded in July.
Reports that Russia's eagerness to sell this season's wheat surplus is already causing bottlenecks at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk are interesting.
Ukraine haven't exactly hit the ground running as far as their exports are concerned, and neither have Kazakhstan who's harvest is only recently underway. Both have plenty of grain to export, but Ukraine needs to iron out it's red tape and export duty system and land-locked Kazakhstan need access to the rest of the world.
Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: beans and corn down 8-10c, wheat down 10-15c.