Early Call On Chicago

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 14:38 | Categorized as

23/09/11 -- The overnight grains finished a choppy session mixed with wheat slightly firmer, corn down 5-7 cents and soybeans 20-22 cents lower.

Early signs of calm after yesterday's sharp sell-off evaporated late in the Globex session on talk of China's economy slowing. NYMEX crude slumped below USD80/barrel, it hasn't closed below that level in almost a year, and has now lost 10% on the week.

There's a growing feeling this week that US and EU central bank's have just about run out of bullets to halt the unfolding financial crisis.

The USDA confirmed the sale of 126,000 MT of soybeans to China under the daily reporting system, yet it looks like further fund selling will be a feature once again this afternoon.

Whilst managed money is still liquidating longs in corn and beans, it's actually already short on wheat which may prevent the latter from matching downwards strides with the former two this afternoon.

This latest flight to safety is keeping the US dollar firm, which is adding a bit of bearish pressure to grains.

There's an element of harvest pressure too, with weather forecasts mostly favourable for the next two weeks.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: wheat flat to 2 cents higher, corn down 5-7 cents, beans down 15-20 cents.