EU Wheat Closing Comments

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 17:55 | Categorized as

12/03/12 -- EU grains finished mostly higher with front month Mar 12 London wheat up GBP0.25/tonne to GBP166.25/tonne, with other months adding GBP2.20-2.40/tonne. Mar 12 Paris wheat expired down EUR2.50/tonne to EUR217.50/tonne, new front month May 12 was however EUR3.00/tonne higher at EUR211.75/tonne.

Fresh news was pretty thin on the ground. US corn continues to find support from reports of Chinese buying (as yet unconfirmed) and the tightness in supply of old crop.

New crop US corn is less steady with likely the highest plantings for 75 years in the wings and sharply higher than normal temperatures in the Midwest looking like getting spring plantings off to a very timely start.

"Oklahoma wheat growing areas benefited from heavy soaking rainfall last week, but the top US wheat state Kansas mostly missed out," say Martell Crop Projections.

"Rainfall in the US bread-basket has been much higher than last year, due to a more active subtropical jet stream across the Southern Great Plains. Another wave of showers is predicted later in the week in the Southern Great Plains, though the moisture would be rather light, .25 to .40 inch amounts with scattered coverage," they add.

EU wheat is emerging from winter dormancy in pretty good shape in many places, although Agritel suggest that 1.9 MMT may have been wiped off France's production potential this year due to winterkill.