Chicago Close

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 23:06 | Categorized as

24/05/11 -- Soybeans: Jul 11 soybeans closed at USD13.72 1/4, down 1 1/2 cents; Nov 11 soybeans closed at USD13.54 1/4, up 3 1/2 cents; Jul 11 soybean meal closed at USD359.20, up USD0.40; Jul 11 soybean oil closed at 57.48, up 26 points. Soybeans fared much better than corn or wheat on the day. Maybe the underlying reason was that planting progress for corn last night at 79% was much better than many had anticipated, therefore the chance of beans picking up more acres than expected has diminished. Funds were said to have sold 15,000-20,000 corn lots on the day as opposed to buying 2,000 bean contracts.

Corn: Jul 11 corn closed at USD7.33 1/4, down 20 3/4 cents; Dec 11 corn closed at USD6.62 1/2, down 8 cents. Fund rolling of nearby longs is expected to start in the next few days, maybe others anticipated this and decided to get out early? On the other hand maybe the funds started liquidating early, selling around 15-20,000 lots on the day. The weather forecast calls for warmer and drier weather for slow planted states like Indiana and Ohio starting this weekend. China say that they are in for a record corn crop in 2011, forecasting output at 181.5 MMT.

Wheat: Jul 11 CBOT wheat closed at USD7.79 3/4, down 23 1/4 cents; Jul 11 KCBT wheat closed at USD9.12, down 19 cents; Jul 11 MGEX wheat closed at USD9.88 3/4, down 12 1/4 cents. Wheat futures appeared to be consolidating after gains of around 60c to a dollar a bushel on the week as a whole last week. Weaker EU wheat futures were a concern despite widespread reports of "irreversible damage" to French, German, Polish and UK wheat. Weather conditions appear to have improved in Western Australia whilst India looks set for a record crop any maybe an opening of the export floodgates.