Nogger's Blog

12/03/12 -- Soybeans: Mar 12 Soybeans closed at USD13.30 1/2, down 1 1/4 cent; Nov 12 Soybeans closed at USD12.99 1/2,down 5 3/4 cents; Mar 12 Soybean Meal closed at USD358.40, down USD0.20; Mar 12 Soybean Oil closed at USD53.63, down 32 points. Funds sold an estimated 3,000 of their heavily overbought soybean position on the day. China unveiled it's largest trade deficit in at least a decade last month, which didn't help ease fears of slumping growth hurting demand for crude. To add to the jitters customs data shows that China imported 3.83 MMT of soybeans in February, down 17% from the 4.61 MMT brought in in January.

Corn: Mar 12 Corn closed at USD6.71 1/2, up 17 1/2 cents; Dec 12 Corn closed at USD5.68 1/2, up 6 cents. Corn made up some lost ground on soybeans as funds came in for an estimated 13,000 lots on the day. Persistent rumours that China has bought several cargoes of US corn in the past few days, and that their corn stocks are in fact significantly lower than official levels encouraged buying. Domestic prices there are said to be far higher than they are in the US, pushing the equivalent of USD10/bu. export inspections of 36,246 million bushels were well above trade expectations.

Wheat: Mar 12 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.52 3/4, up 14 cents; Mar 12 KCBT Wheat closed at USD6.91, up 12 cents; Mar 12 MGEX Wheat closed at USD8.10 3/4, up 9 cents. Corn and the size of the spec short in Chicago supported wheat today as did reports that France may have lost almost 2 MMT to winterkill. Russia has exported 21.5 MMT of grains so far this marketing year, and will probably not ship more than 26 MMT this season say IKAR. Oklahoma got some useful rains over the weekend but most of Kansas largely missed out.