Chicago Close

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 07:16 | Categorized as

04/08/11 -- Soybeans: Aug 11 Soybeans closed at USD13.39 1/4, down 24 3/4 cents; Nov 11 Soybeans closed at USD13.45 1/4, down 27 3/4 cents; Aug 11 Soybean Meal closed at USD347.60, down USD5.40; Aug 11 Soybean Oil closed at 55.18, down 110 points. Risk aversion saw crude fall more than USD5.00/barrel and the Dow plunge more than 500 points. In a market like that there was only ever going to be one winner despite weekly export sales being better than expected at 680,200 MT and the USDA announcing a further sale of 174,000 MT of new crop soybeans to China. WxRisk say that there is little heat threat now until Aug 20th, or maybe even the entire month, east of the Mississippi. Informa Economics put the US soybean yield at 42.5bpa, in line with FCStone's estimate of 42.4bpa earlier in the week.

Corn: Sep 11 Corn closed at USD6.93 3/4, down 12 1/4 cents; Dec 11 Corn closed at USD7.01 1/2, down 11 1/2 cents. Crude oil slumped more than USD5.00/barrel in a risk off session that corn did relatively well in to only close with losses of around 12 cents. Funds dumped an estimated 13,000 contracts on the day, but that still leaves them net buyers on the week as a whole. US weather prospects are improving, with the 6-10 day outlook calling for above normal precipitation and below normal temperatures. Informa came out with a yield figure of 158bpa, much higher than the 150-153 levels that have been flying about all week, which would produce a record corn crop of 13.353 billion bushels. Weekly export sales were disappointing at 758,600 MT (850 thousand to 1.1 million MT expected).

Wheat: Sep 11 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.81 3/4, down 28 3/4 cents; Sep 11 KCBT Wheat closed at USD7.71, down 27 cents; Sep 11 MGEX Wheat closed at USD8.23 1/4, down 21 1/2 cents. The strong dollar, weak outside markets, world economy woes and spillover weakness from corn and beans all dragged wheat lower. Whist weekly export sales were good at just over 500 TMT news that Egypt continues to shop elsewhere for it's wheat requirements, whilst no surprise, further re-enforced the view that America needs to keep the pencil sharp on price to match the current USDA export target. There's every chance that that particular bar will be lowered next week. Informa increased all wheat production slightly to 2.117 billion bushels.