Early Call On Chicago
26/08/11 -- The overnight grains finished mostly lower ahead of this afternoon's speech by Ben Bernanke in which he may or may not extol the virtues of further QE.
Wheat closed around 6-8 cents lower, with corn mostly 1-2 cents easier and beans down 2-3 cents. Crude oil is down around a dollar.
Wheat is the weakest link following another blank in yesterday's Egyptian tender following weekly export sales that failed to match expectations.
Talk that Russia may consider grain export duties has been dismissed with a senior Minister saying that the market will regulate itself once Ukraine and Kazakhstan enter the export fray.
Ukraine is said to be considering the removal of it's existing export duty system which is preventing it from competing with Russian grain on the international export markets.
Kazakhstan has already stated that it will provide subsidies to enable it's land-locked grain to compete with Black Sea offers once it's harvest is complete.
The ProFarmer crop tour will summarise it's findings later this afternoon.
Market direction today will depend on what Bernanke has to say, but for now the early calls are beans down 2-3c, wheat down 6-8c and corn 1-2c easier.
