London Wheat Falls As Paris Wheat Gains

04/11/11 -- EU grains finished mixed with Nov 11 London wheat down GBP0.50/tonne to GBP150.50/tonne and Nov 11 Paris wheat rising EUR1.75/tonne to EUR195.50/tonne.

On the week as a whole that places London wheat GBP2.50/tonne lower and Paris wheat EUR8.75/tonne higher.

Nov 11 Paris wheat is now an EUR8.50/tonne premium to Jan 12, which in turn is a further EUR2.25/tonne premium to Mar 12 and May 12. I wish I could easily explain that but I can't.

Despite the inverse, volume offers of nearby physical wheat are scarce in France, according to FC Stone. If the front month premium looks bizarre to us then it has also to others, the nearby longs are stronger than the nearby shorts is another explanation I've heard.

Brussels granted 525 TMT of EU soft wheat exports this past week, bringing the marketing year total to date to a shade over 5 MMT. Despite that being the largest weekly total of the 2011/12 campaign it is still 40% down on where we were a year ago.

Nothing too concrete appears to have emerged from the G20 summit in Cannes. Yet again we have a lot of talk of "cohesion" and "determination" to sort the global economy out, but the devil is supposed to be in the detail and in this case once more we don't appear to have any detail.

The Greek government is tonight facing a vote of confidence over its handling of the debt crisis. Many are now saying that Papandreou's referendum idea was no more than a way of forcing the opposition into sharing the political burden of passing the bailout deal.

Who knows what Monday brings, a weekend is a long time in politics.