EU Wheat Closing Comments
EU wheat futures closed Thursday mixed with November London wheat ending GBP0.75 easier at GBP108/tonne, and November Paris wheat up EUR0.50 at EUR144.25/tonne.
London wheat was under pressure after sterling broke through the 1.18 mark against the euro, threatening to breach 1.19, a level last seen on 22 Jun 2009.
The euro remains under pressure with Italy, Portugal and Spain all announcing acute austerity measures in an attempt to avoid following Greece into the poor house.
China did it's best to help by denying that it is considering cutting its holdings of eurozone sovereign debt. Saying anything else would have caused a further stampede towards European exit doors.
All this furore seems to be deflecting attention away from the "unlikely lads" of David Cameron and Nick Clegg running things in the UK. At least for now they seem to have made a promising start to their shotgun wedding, and the pound is up accordingly.
Comments from the OECD that UK interest rates will need to rise by as much as 3.5% over the next 18 months, starting by Q4 this year, have also helped the pound. If they're right then that could be to the detriment of new crop wheat prices holding where they are now.
Wetter and cooler weather seems to have moved back into northern France, allaying some concerns over production losses there. Some reports continue to suggest however that some of the damage is irreversible.
Things are looking a bit better here too, with scattered showers rather than widespread downpours at least alleviating some concerns.
Egypt are back in the market, tendering for 120,000 MT of wheat for June 20-30 shipment, with the weakness of the euro French wheat might stand a good chance of winning some of that business.
London wheat was under pressure after sterling broke through the 1.18 mark against the euro, threatening to breach 1.19, a level last seen on 22 Jun 2009.
The euro remains under pressure with Italy, Portugal and Spain all announcing acute austerity measures in an attempt to avoid following Greece into the poor house.
China did it's best to help by denying that it is considering cutting its holdings of eurozone sovereign debt. Saying anything else would have caused a further stampede towards European exit doors.
All this furore seems to be deflecting attention away from the "unlikely lads" of David Cameron and Nick Clegg running things in the UK. At least for now they seem to have made a promising start to their shotgun wedding, and the pound is up accordingly.
Comments from the OECD that UK interest rates will need to rise by as much as 3.5% over the next 18 months, starting by Q4 this year, have also helped the pound. If they're right then that could be to the detriment of new crop wheat prices holding where they are now.
Wetter and cooler weather seems to have moved back into northern France, allaying some concerns over production losses there. Some reports continue to suggest however that some of the damage is irreversible.
Things are looking a bit better here too, with scattered showers rather than widespread downpours at least alleviating some concerns.
Egypt are back in the market, tendering for 120,000 MT of wheat for June 20-30 shipment, with the weakness of the euro French wheat might stand a good chance of winning some of that business.
