News Snippets

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 09:39 | Categorized as

06/09/11 -- Kazakhstan has harvested 6 MMT of grain off 26% of the planted area with yields so far averaging 74% more than last year. That puts them on target to beat the Ministry's forecast for a 18.9 MMT crop this year.

Ukraine have harvested 34.9 MMT of grain so far off 74% of the planted area with yields coming in 22% higher. Corn harvesting is now underway where a crop of 16-17 MMT is expected.

The corn harvest has also begun in France with early yields described as "excellent." Some reports suggest that yields could reach a record 10 MT/ha this year due to timely sowings in the spring and regular rainfall across the summer.

Chinese inflation fell from 6.5% in July to 6.1% in August, although pork prices are said to be at record highs.

The USDA will report on crop conditions after the close tonight. I'd expect that we could see corn good/excellent fall maybe 3-4 points, with beans down 2-3 in the top two categories.

Nov London wheat has opened GBP0.20/tonne lower in early trade, with Nov Paris wheat down one euro.

The Swiss National Bank has announced that it is to set a minimum exchange rate against the euro of 1.20 for the soaring Swiss Franc by buying foreign currency in "unlimited quantities." That could cost more than a trip to the Harvey Nicks with Mrs N#1.

Gold has hit it's twelfth record high since the beginning of August this morning, trading above USD1920/oz for the first time since Adam was a lad as the market braces itself for a raft of data and news out of the US and Europe this week. First up is US manufacturing data later this afternoon.