The Morning Vibe
30/08/11 -- Whilst we had a day off yesterday here in the UK the rest of the markets were open with Nov Paris wheat closing EUR3.75/tonne higher at EUR214.00/tonne. Chicago soybeans posted strong gains of 23 1/4 cents last night, with corn modestly higher up 3 3/4 cents and wheat mixed down 5 cents nearby to up 7 cents further forward.
Corn set contract highs as funds piled in for an estimated 7,000 contracts on the day. Are we bouncing on the ceiling here or simply en-route to USD8/bu, or at whatever point price rationing starts?
Corn good/excellent crop conditions fell 3 points to 54% the USDA said after the close, a little more than the trade expected, yet the overnight markets are lower this morning. Soybean good/excellent fell two points to 57%, in line with what was expected.
Winter wheat harvesting has reached 97% done, spring wheat is only 50% cut as opposed to 71% normally and good/excellent spring wheat fell one point to 61%.
Yemen has bought 100,000 MT of Black Sea wheat overnight, let's hope for their sakes that it isn't scheduled to come from the port of Novorossiisk.
In an interesting development over the weekend the Russian rail authority RZhD says that it has suspended transportation of grain to the major Black Sea port of Novorossiisk as the rail system into the port has become clogged and is unable to cope with the volume of traffic heading its way.
In Ukraine the corn harvest began over the weekend, with a crop of around 17 MMT expected. Winter rapeseed planting is already 40% complete.