Chicago Closing Comments

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 09:14 | Categorized as

16/05/12 -- Soybeans: Jul 12 Soybeans closed at USD14.22, up 9 cents; Nov 12 Soybeans closed at USD13.02 1/4, down 2 3/4 cents; Jul 12 Soybean Meal closed at USD425.00, up USD7.80; Jul 12 Soybean Oil closed at 50.43, down 104 points. Old crop beans gained on new crop on ideas that an early winter wheat harvest will see quite a few more soybean acres than the USDA currently predicts get planted this spring. With new crop beans at USD13/bu it would certainly make sense. Old crop availability though remains tight. The trade is expecting another week of bumper export sales tomorrow, with estimates in the region of 1.1-1.6 MMT. Chinese think tank CNGOIC said that China will import 58 MMT of soybeans this year, 2 MMT more than the USDA currently predict. They peg Chinese soybean production this year at 13 MMT.

Corn: Jul 12 Corn closed at USD6.20, up 22 3/4 cents; Dec 12 Corn closed at USD5.26 1/4, up 11 3/4 cents. Funds were said to have bought an estimated 18,000 corn contracts on the day, largely managing to shrug off Greek concerns. Spillover support came from a bullish performance from wheat. CNGOIC say that China will produce a record 197.5 MMT of corn this year, even so imports will rise 0.5 MMT in the year starting Oct 1 to 6 MMT, they added. Support came from news that the USDA had confirmed 900,000 MT of corn sold to China, although most of that was switches from already announced sales to "unknown" 240,000 MT of it was new business. Trade estimates for tomorrows weekly export sales report are 800 TMT - 1.4 MMT.

Wheat: Jul 12 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.38 3/4, up 30 1/4 cents; Jul 12 KCBT Wheat closed at USD6.56, up 28 1/2 cents; Jul 12 MGEX Wheat closed at USD7.60, up 9 1/2 cents. Wheat was the star performer for once on short-covering following reports of "irreversible" crop deterioration in parts of Russia which has been hot and dry of late. Rains are in the forecast pushing east from Ukraine but may fizzle out before they get to Russia. Late news suggests that Strategie Grains are due to write down the EU-27 soft wheat crop by more than 4 MMT tomorrow, bringing their all wheat production estimate to 130.3 MMT, a 7.4 MMT drop on last year. Weekly export sales tomorrow are expected to be in the region of 400-850 TMT.