EU Wheat Ends Lower Despite Central Bank Announcement
30/11/11 -- EU grains finished mostly lower with Jan 12 London wheat down GBP1.85/tonne to GBP142.65/tonne and Jan 12 Paris wheat falling EUR2.75/tonne to EUR178.50/tonne.For Paris wheat this was the lowest front month close since July 2010 and bang on key support, a close below which could trigger a tumble all the way down to the next support at EUR154.25/tonne, according to FCStone.
It was a very topsy turvy day. Grains were lower in early trade, but reversed that trend in the afternoon following a joint announcement from the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Canada.
They said that they were were "announcing coordinated actions to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system."
Stock markets embraced the news with enthusiasm, with the popular indices in London, Paris and Germany all rising around 3-5% carried along by a wave of euphoria and the grains went along for the ride.
The pound dropped against the euro and rose versus a slumping US dollar.
Yet, before the close of play, markets were working lower again on the feeling that maybe things weren't quite as rosy as they initially seemed.
In other news, Saudi Arabia is tendering for 330,000 MT of hard high protein wheat and Japan is in for 260,000 MT of feed wheat - possibly at the expense of corn.
Russia's First Vice PM says that the country will have exported 18 MMT of grains by the beginning of 2012. Ukraine says it will need to resow 1.5 million hectares of failed winter crops in the spring, around 17% of the planted area.
