Nogger's Blog

29/12/11 -- The overnight grains were mostly lower with beans around 8-10 cents easier, wheat down 3-4 cents and corn a half higher on old crop to 1 1/2 lower on new crop. Crude oil is slightly firmer and the US dollar is also steadier.

The market got a little reminder that far from being out of the woods, Europe is still lost somewhere in the thick of it. Italy managed to auction off EUR7 billion of three-year and 10-year bonds but still had to pay almost 7% to do so.

That saw the euro slump to its lowest in more than 15 months against the dollar.

The South American weather forecasts offer some encouragement a week from now, but not much in the way of precipitation prior to that.

Tomorrow is first notice day on Jan CBOT soy complex contracts, which means that anyone still long on the front month risks taking delivery on Friday. If they don't want to do that then they need to exit their position today.

Weekly export sales data from the USDA is delayed until tomorrow due to Monday's holiday.

After eight sessions higher, it could be time for a little money to be taken off the table this afternoon prior to year-end.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: beans 8-10 cents lower, wheat down 2-4 cents, corn flat to 1 cent higher. Apart from that de do do do, de da da da is all I've got to say to you.