EU Soymeal Prices
Brazil pellets 48
Afloat 424,00 (USD/tonne)
Nov 422,00
Dec 422,00
Jan/March 395,00
May/Sep 333,00
Argentine pellets 44/45
Afloat 411,00-409,00
Nov 410,00
Dec 410,00
Jan/March 395,00
May/Sep 323,00
Dutch Hipro 49 profat
Nov 444.00
Dec 444,00
Jan 433,00
Feb/Apr 419,00
May/Jul 355,00
May/Oct 357,00
Argentine Hipro 49 profat
Afloat 433,00-428,00
Oct 428,00
Nov/Dec 426,00
Jan/March 407,00
May/Sep 339,00
eCBOT Close, Early Call
The overnights closed mixed Monday with beans around 7-8 cents higher, corn up around a cent or so and wheat down 1-3 cents.
The US weather forecast for the week ahead is unquestionably drier and warmer than anything we saw in October.
A few lingering showers will remain in northern areas; Minnesota, N Iowa, N Indiana and N Illinois. Elsewhere will be largely dry. It seems that the forecast for the second week in November is similarly beneficial at the moment.
The USDA will report tonight on the latest harvest progress for corn and beans as of Sunday. They will also report on winter wheat planting.
For Illinois, where the bean and corn harvest has been severely delayed, the cut-off date for claiming maximum benefits on winter wheat crop insurance has now passed.
It seems highly likely that US winter wheat acreage will fall short of original intentions.
Russia bought 55,300 MT of wheat on the opening day of it's intervention purchases today. Ukraine report 22% of it's newly planted winter wheat crop is in poor condition.
Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: soybeans called 5-7 cents higher, corn up 1-2 cents, wheat flat to 2 cents lower.
Russia Begins Grain Intervention
The newly formed United Grain Company bought 54,000 MT of grade 3 wheat on the opening day of Russia's intervention support programme at 3,300 roubles/tonne (USD113/tonne), according to media reports.
A small quantity of grade 4 wheat was also purchased, said Elena Skrynnik the Minister of Agriculture, bringing total purchases on day one to 55,300 MT.
The Russian grain harvest to date amounts to 101 MMT in bunker weight, the Minister added.
A total of 9.5 billion roubles has been allocated to grain intervention for the 2009/10 marketing year, which will purchase the equivalent of around 3 million tonnes of grain, said Sergey Levin, the head of United Grain Company.
That is significantly down on the funds allocated to intervention in 2008/09.
Lower Rhine Rapemeal Prices
Nov 126,00 (EUR/tonne0
Nov/Jan 126,00
Dec/Jan 126,00
Feb/Apr 126,00
May/1st h Jly 121,00
Aug/Oct 10 118,00
Nov/Apr 11 128,00
Chinese Wheat: I Don't Know Whether To Eat It Or Make A Charm Bracelet Out Of It
The Chinese have started firing rain-inducing silver iodide into the skies earlier than normal this year, in an attempt to stave off a lingering drought over the northern half of the country.
This is where most of the nation's winter wheat is grown, and where farmers have suffered from an off-on drought for the last ten years.
The seeding, plus temperatures falling as low 29 F, brought an early covering of 'fake' snow to Beijing on Sunday morning. The snow was the earliest to hit the capital in 10 years, according to the Beijing Evening News.
Snow also fell in the north-eastern provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the northern province of Hebei, according to media reports.
The Chinese don't appear overly concerned about the potentially insidious and cumulatively harmful effects of repeatedly firing silver iodide into the skies around the same regions in the north year after year.
The Office of Environment, Health and Safety, UC Berkeley, rates silver iodide as a Class C, non-soluble, inorganic, hazardous chemical that pollutes water and soil. It has been found to be highly toxic to fish, livestock and humans. Nice.
Brazil: New Crop Soybeans By Christmas
The window of opportunity for US farmers to have the world soybean export market to themselves is getting ever-shorter.
Not only is harvesting in the US well behind schedule, the early arrival of rains in South America saw Brazilian farmers in Mato Grosso (which accounts for around a third of national production), get off to a flier mid-September.
Taking advantage of significant front-end premiums to be had at the time, many savvy growers in the region planted fast maturing soybean varieties.
Rains have continued to be beneficial since these early beans went into the ground, and reports suggest that some farmers will be harvesting beans before Christmas this year.
That may be a little bit of a two-edged sword, as it may trim a bit off yields. It will however enable them to make the most of the local front-end premiums and get a timely 2nd crop of corn into the ground for harvesting later in the summer.
Plenty of reports I am reading suggest that the usage of this strategy will be widespread this season. That may suggest that the current Brazilian soybean production estimates of around 64 MMT may be a tad optimistic. It would also suggest however that China might switch it's attention away from the US a little earlier than normal, and in addition lead to an increased corn crop in 2010.
CIT Group Files For Chapter 11
New York based CIT Group is to become one of the largest bankruptcies in US history.
The group, which specialises in loans to an estimated one million small to medium-sized US businesses, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The vast majority of a USD2.3 billion loan of US tax-payers money is expected to be lost. This make CIT the largest company to take a government bail-out and still end up filing for bankruptcy.
The news might send a wave of nervousness through the stock market, which had just got it into it's head that a corner had been turned.
Argentina Stifles At 117 F
Friday was one of the hottest days on record in Argentina on Friday, with Catamarca in the north soaring to 117 F, within three degrees of the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country back in 1907.
La Rioja recorded a high of 113 F, with Tucuman and Santiago Del Estero both topping out at 112 F, according to AccuWeather.
The latter two are situated in the heart of Santiago Del Estero state, which is a big soybean and corn growing region just north of Cordoba.
