Nogger's Blog

03/11/11 -- The overnight grains rebounded with beans ending 20-22 cents firmer, corn up 6-8 cents and wheat up 5-7 cents. Crude oil is around a dollar higher.

The BBC are reporting that the Greek PM will to offer his resignation "within the next half-hour" which could shelve referendum plans, an idea that the market seems to like.

If he does go then it would seem that we may be in for our second bout of Thursday europhoria in a row. Although we all know what subsequently happened to last week's rally so don't go getting too carried away just yet. Meanwhile, a potential Italian default would make the Greek Farce look like a walk in the park.

The ECB have cut eurozone interest rates by a quarter point to 1.25%. That's about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

The USDA weekly export sales were a bit better than expected for corn at 622,600 MT and also included one cargo switched from unknown to China. Wheat sales were below expectations at 320,100 MT and soybean sales were uglier than Mrs N#1 at 209,700 MT versus trade guesses of 450-750 TMT.

The latter makes the China has been buying US beans lately rumours look all the more dubious.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: beans up 15-20 cents, wheat and corn 5-7 cents firmer.