Chicago Close - Friday

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 13:09 | Categorized as

05/11/10 -- Soybeans

Nov 10 soybeans closed at USD12.73 1/2, up 8 3/4 cents; Dec 10 soybean meal closed at USD348.00, down USD0.20; Dec 10 soybean oil closed at 52.22, up 97 points. Beans advanced 48c on the week, with meal up USD10.30 and oil almost 300 points higher. Veg oils and soybeans were up sharply in China overnight, propelling beans to a 17 month high and oil to a 26 month high. Food price inflation fears are what seems to be driving the market at the moment. The USDA are out on Tuesday with their November WASDE and US production and stocks numbers. Ending stocks are expected to decline slightly from last months 265 million bushels to 243 million and production to increase slightly to 3.426 billion from USDAs October number of 3.408.

Corn

Dec 10 corn closed at USD5.87 3/4, down 2 1/4 cents; Mar 11 Corn closed at U*SD6.01 3/4, down 2 cents. Dec corn closed just 5 3/4c higher on the week, although it did post a contract high on Thursday. Pre-weekend profit taking along with a slightly stronger dollar led corn to post modest losses. There was also probably an element of book squaring ahead of Tuesday's USDA report. Analysts are looking for ending stocks to decline to 845 million bushels from 902 million in the last report. Average trade guess for production is 12.542 billion bushels compared to the USDA October number of 12.664 billion bushels. Yields are seen falling from 155.8 bpa to around 154.6 bpa.

Wheat

Dec 10 CBOT wheat closed at USD7.28 3/4, up 15 cents; Dec 10 KCBT wheat closed at USD7.86, up 17 cents; Dec 10 MGEX Wheat closed at USD7.97, up 12 1/4 cents. Wheat ranged from 11 to 20 cents higher on the week. Prices jumped higher in the last half hour of trade to close at their best levels since September. Tuesday's USDA report is not expected to be as important for wheat as it is for corn and soybeans. A small ending stocks increase if actually being forecast, to 855 million bushels from 853 last month. Production numbers from around the world will carry more importance, especially with regards to Argentina and Australia.