The Morning Vibe

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 10:00 | Categorized as

21/05/12 -- The overnight grains are sharply higher to start the week I see, seemingly brushing away all those solar panel war fears!

Fresh news is somewhat thin on the ground. Russian/Ukraine drought concerns say the morning wires, yet my agronomist chum Mike Lee in Ukraine tweets that "Looks set to be a warm and dry week in Ukraine after a cool and wet weekend. The wet weather meant corn planting stopped over much of Ukraine from Wed thru Sun night."

Russia's spring grain planting is two thirds done at just over 20 million hectares, according to the Ag Ministry there.

China's April soybean imports were 4.88 MMT, up 26% on April 2011, according to customs data.

The USDA will report on planting progress tonight. Last week we had soybeans at 46% complete, corn at 87% and spring wheat at 94% done. Maybe of more interest will be winter wheat crop conditions which fell three points to 60% good/excellent last week on a national level, and from 60% to 52% in Kansas.

Including the overnight (or is it now the all day?) market, July CBOT wheat is up 20% since May 11. An astonishing rally in such a short period which must have cost the fund shorts dearly.

At home we look set for a shot at some warmer more settled weather this week, which certainly won't do our crops any harm at all. New crop Nov 12 London wheat currently trades GBP3.70/tonne higher in early trade at GBP162.50/tonne this morning, close to its highest since last June.