The Early Vibe

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 09:30 | Categorized as

29/12/10 -- Records have been tumbling whilst the UK has had a four day holiday to digest the Christmas turkey.

Paris was open for business as usual yesterday, seeing Jan milling wheat break through the EUR250/tonne barrier to hit the highest levels for a front month since March 2008. Front month Feb rapeseed also broke through EUR500/tonne yesterday, although it finally closed just below that important psychological mark.

Meanwhile in Chicago last night nearby March wheat went through USD8/bushel for the first time since news of exactly how bad things were in Russia hit back in August.

The ongoing drought in Argentina has also seen CBOT corn establish itself well above USD6/bushel, with soybeans now seemingly setting their sights on a shot at USD14/bushel. Corn set a 29 month high yesterday and beans a 28 month high.

A glance at the front month continuous weekly charts on Grainportal.com shows just about every commodity barring Paris malting barley looking set to close 2010 at the highest levels of the year (and for what it's worth malting barley was only EUR1.50 off the weekly high close last night).

London wheat has come in sharply higher at the opening this morning, with all four old crop months now GBP200/tonne or higher as the market plays catch up after two days of closures. New crop Nov11 is up GBP3.75 to a contract high GBP170/tonne this morning, and even Nov12 is up GBP3.00 to GBP150/tonne.

What will happen in the new year if a further wave of fresh investment money comes flooding into these markets is a truly scary thought.