Late Slump Sees Chicago Corn Back Below USD6.00

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 10:08 | Categorized as

13/01/12 -- Soybeans: Jan 12 Soybeans closed at USD11.60, down 18 1/2 cents; Jan 12 Soybean Meal closed at USD304.80, down USD1.30; Jan 12 Soybean Oil closed at 50.20, down 95 points. Jan contracts went off the board at noon with beans down 20 cents on the week, meal down USD4.80 and oil losing 60 points. Deferred positions pressed on to post further losses late in the session with Mar 12 soybeans closing at USD11.58 1/4, down 24 1/4 cents; Mar 12 Soybeans closed at USD11.58 1/4, down 24 1/4 cents; Mar 12 Soymeal closed at USD301.50, down USD5.60; Mar 12 Soybean Oil closed at 50.29, down 117 points. Funds sold an estimated 8,000 soybean contracts on spillover weakness from yesterday's bearish USDA report and as noon weather forecasts turned wetter for Argentina. S&P's downgrades for various eurozone nations didn't help, propelling the dollar to a sixteen month high against the euro.

Corn: Mar 12 Corn closed at USD5.99 1/2, down 12 cents; May 12 Corn closed at USD6.06 1/2, down 11 3/4 cents. On the week as a whole Mar corn lost 44 cents after the USDA report once again surprised the market. Corn slumped below USD6.00/bushel for the first time since mid-December today and is now only 20 cents away from the 2011 lows it established then. Funds were heavy sellers for the second day in a row, particularly late in the session, dumping an estimated 18,000 contracts. If true that means they've ditched 36,000 over the past couple of days. That wipes out all the length they'd put on and then some in the previous week to Tuesday, according to today's weekly Commitment of Traders report. A firm dollar didn't help in the wake of yesterday's rather disappointing export sales. Markets are closed Sunday night and Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday.

Wheat: Mar 12 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.02 1/4, down 2 3/4 cents; Mar 12 KCBT Wheat closed at USD6.70, down 3 cents; Mar 12 MGEX Wheat closed at USD8.01 1/4, down 6 1/4 cents. Wheat didn't fall anything like as much as corn or beans, with funds already short there wasn't the same wall of selling as in the other two pits, although they were still given credit for offloading 4,000 Chicago contracts on the day. Chicago wheat fell 22 1/2 cents on the week, with Kansas down 10 cents and Minneapolis up 1/4 cent. Lost in amongst yesterday's USDA data was a surprise increase in US wheat exports this season from 24.5 MMT to 25 MMT. The US now needs to export wheat at the rate of 465,000 MT/week to hit that target, but it's only managed to do that once in the past ten weeks. The firm dollar is unlikely to help their cause much. Egypt bought two cargoes of French wheat and one from Russia in a tender today.