Nogger's Blog

21/06/12 -- The electronic grains are down, but off earlier lows in a modest correction from recent strong gains. The US weather doesn't seem much different to yesterday, although maybe a tad cooler. Some rain has fallen overnight and this morning centred around SE Nebraska, NE Kansas and SW Missouri.

Crude is lower following disappointment that the Fed didn't fire the printing presses up for a third time and on bad economic news out of China.

The USDA's weekly export sales report was a mixed bag. Wheat sales of a combined 842 TMT were well ahead of the 300-500 TMT expected. Corn sales of 382 TMT were below the 450-650 TMT anticipated as were soybean sales at 608 TMT (vs 700-950 TMT).

Libya and Iraq are tendering for 50,000 MT each of wheat on the international stage. Algeria is said to have bought 600,000 MT of probably French wheat and Japan has bought 108,500 MT of US wheat in it's regular Thursday tender.

Fresh news is hard to come by. Brent crude has hit an 18-month low and NYMEX crude is threatening to fall below USD80/barrel. Spain is paying 4.7% for loans maturing in two years - getting on for nine times as much as neighbours France who are paying just 0.54%. Manufacturing in the US is growing at its slowest pace in 11 months, according to Reuters.