It's All Gone Pear-Shaped

Things look like they've gone the shape of a small soft edible fruit this morning in the aftermath to the USDA's barrage of bearish data yesterday afternoon.

Corn has followed through from it's locked-in limit down close, trading around 16-18 cents lower on the overnight eCBOT market. That has dragged wheat and beans further into the mire, with those two trading around 7 cents and 5 cents easier respectively.

The Bank of China has thrown another spanner in the works for the second week running overnight, raising the minimum reserves of the nation's banks. That might have a negative impact on demand for crude oil and soybeans.

Crude is currently flirting either side of USD80/barrel, despite a weak dollar, ahead of stocks data from the US Energy Dept due later today. The report, due at 15:30 GMT, is expected to show US crude inventories grew by 1.4 million barrels last week.

The dollar is weaker across the board, with the pound pushing up to 1.6240, close to the upper limits of its recent range. This, and follow through from last night's weak close, look set to weight on London wheat futures again today which have opened around GBP1/tonne easier.

Record yields, record production, multi-year high ending stocks and multi year low exports.

Bullish this isn't. Unless you are a delusionist. Over to you, Eric.