Nogger's Blog

03/06/11 -- Soybeans: Jul 11 soybeans closed at USD14.14 1/2, up 7 1/2 cents; Nov 11 soybeans closed at USD13.97, up 4 1/4 cents; Jul 11 soybean meal closed at USD368.40, up USD2.40; Jul 11 soybean oil closed at 58.73, down 18 points. On the week as a whole Jul beans gained 34 3/4 cents, with new crop Nov climbing 28 1/2c. Planting remains sluggish in some of the more northern soggy states like Ohio. There's still time to get a bean crop in though, but these delays and tight old crop stocks have encouraged new money back into the market. Weekly export sales were a bit disappointing at 155,500 MT, compared with expectations of 150-350 TMT. That's six weeks in a row of sales below 200,000 MT.

Corn: Jul 11 corn closed at USD7.54, down 12 1/2 cents; Dec 11 corn closed at USD6.86 1/4, down 8 3/4 cents. Corn fell despite the late planting story on ideas that it is simply too expensive relative to wheat. Stories coming out of Asia suggest that as a feed grain US corn is currently around USD60/tonne more expensive than Australian feed wheat. An improved weather forecast for the Corn Blet this weekend may finally see many of those unplanted acres get sown. The USDA will report on planting progress on Monday night, 14% of the crop was unseeded as of last Sunday night. Corn export sales were a combined 700,900 MT, in the middle of trade ideas of 500TMT - 1 MMT

Wheat: Jul 11 CBOT wheat closed at USD7.73 3/4, up 4 cents; Jul 11 KCBT wheat closed at USD9.14 1/4, up 5 1/4 cents; Jul 11 MGEX wheat closed at USD10.60 1/2, up 41 cents. Minneapolis wheat raced away, extending the gap between it and Chicago wheat now to close to three dollars. Spring wheat plantings remain well behind schedule, and final yield potential is being reduced with each day that passes. Winter wheat production estimates are also falling with Linn Group and Informa Economics cutting their forecasts this week. Export sales of 308,800 MT were in line with expectations for sales of 200-500,000 MT.