Morning Mumblings

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 10:19 | Categorized as

05/05/11 -- The overnights are higher, with wheat regaining some of last night's losses up 7-10c, and beans & corn around 3-5c firmer.

That's swimming against the tide as crude is down a dollar and a half plus, along with most other energies, metals and softs.

The pound remains under pressure ahead of the BoE's announcement on interest rates at noon. The ECB are also due to release a statement on rates in the eurozone later this afternoon.

China sold 43% of the wheat on offer in this week's public auction. They've also said that they are loading the first of a 1 MMT consignment of US corn bought in March (presumably part of the 1.25 MMT sold to "unknown" announced on 25th March). They also say that there are no plans to buy any more internationally at the moment.

Metcheck say that things are set to turn more unsettled as the high pressure that has dominated the UK finally gets pushed away. "A rather warm and unsettled weekend with rain and thundery showers becoming more widespread," lies ahead they say.

German farming association DBV say that "the expectations for the upcoming rape and cereal crops in many parts of Germany have received a setback." No shit Sherlock!

This afternoon's USDA weekly export sales are expected to show wheat sales of 300 and 600 thousand MT, corn sales of 350 to 650 thousand MT and soybean sales of 100 to 300 thousand MT.

Reports coming out of Russia suggest that grain stocks may in fact be "up to 8MMT" higher than originally thought. Local prices have been under the cosh as with an export ban in place growers and traders there have been unable to take advantage of the spike in world prices. There's some talk of the export ban being lifted as early as the end of this month. Spring plantings however are still well behind, which maybe makes this somewhat unlikely.

A union leader was arrested outside Vivergo yesterday as the dispute there grinds on, according to the BBC.

The HGCA have released some new information on how to manage Ramularia, I thought he was the Brazilian right-back, but apparently it isn't.