Chicago Closing Comments

Corn: May 12 Corn closed at USD6.66, up 1 cent; Dec 12 Corn closed at USD5.28, up 3 1/4 cents. Corn closed firmer, but well off session highs, with front month May 12 touching 22 cents higer at one point. May goes off the board next Monday. Funds were said to have bought around 4,000 corn contracts on the day. Old crop remains tight with farmer selling minimal as they busy themselves sowing new crop. There's some suggestion that China may have bought old and new crop corn over the weekend, but there is no official confirmation of this yet. The USDA will give us fresh 2012 world production estimates on Thursday as well as report on US ending stocks which, for corn, it has hitherto been reluctant to drop below the 800 million bushel mark.
Wheat: May 12 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.09, up 2 3/4 cents; May 12 KCBT Wheat closed at USD6.25, up 5 3/4 cents; May 12 MGEX Wheat closed at USD7.31 3/4, down 3 3/4 cents. Funds were said to have bought around 2,000 Chicago contracts on the day. Export activity is fairly light, Jordan bought 50,000 MT of optional origin wheat in a tender overnight. Tunisia bought 75,000 MT of wheat from an unspecified origin. South Korea bought 112,000 MT of optional origin feed wheat, 92,000 MT of US wheat and 36,100 MT of Australian milling wheat. The USDA are expected to report a sharp rebound in US wheat production on Thursday with an average trade estimate of 2.196 billion bushels (59.8 MMT) versus 1.999 billion (54.4 MMT) last year.