The Morning Vibe
15/03/13 -- The overnight grains are mixed with wheat around 6-7 cents lower, corn down a couple of cents and soybeans consolidating from a four day losing streak at around 4 cents firmer. Chinese soybean futures are also up overnight on bargain-hunting.
Syria is said to have bought French wheat in a deal fronted by Lebanon. A 32,000 MT cargo of French wheat, said to be the first shipment since May 2011 to be destined for Syria, is due to load out of the west coast in the next few days. You can get more on this story here.
Brussels granted a healthy 476 TMT of soft wheat export licenses this past week, bringing the cumulative year-to-date total to 14.2 MMT.
There is talk Brazil's port workers strike lined up for Mar 19th will not go ahead due to ongoing talks with government.
The pound is up to the dizzy heights of 1.5140 against the dollar and over 1.16 versus the euro this morning after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King denied policy makers are deliberately looking to push sterling down.
The minutes of the BoE's MPC March meeting are out next Wednesday.
"Drought conditions in the contiguous U.S. (are) now rated at 51.38%, down from 53.34% last week. Drought still covers approximately 91% of the central and northern Plains, but declined slightly to 54.5% of the southern Plains and Delta and 35.5% of the Midwest," say MDA CropCast.
It's still a game of two halves in Russia: "Showers the past several days in southern Russia have produced 15 mm of rainfall, on average, but heavier in Rostov and Volgograd the northern two winter wheat districts. Warming temperatures in the 50s F have further promoted growth. Wheat is beginning to green up much earlier than usual, due to pronounced winter warmth. A very strong weather disturbance last week caused widespread generous precipitation in Russia's Black Earth and Volga winter wheat growing areas, the northern portion of the grain belt. Unfavourable dry field conditions have persisted in Krasnodar and especially Stavropol in the south though," say Martell Crop Projections.
They also report on unusually cold weather in northern China: "Temperatures this winter have been persistently cold in Northeast China affecting top corn provinces Heilongjiang, Jilin and Nei Monggol. Presently, the snow cover averages around 5 inches deep. That has not changed at all for the past several weeks, due to persistent bitter cold weather. Harbin the capital city of Heilongjiang has experienced a bitter cold winter, minimum temperatures below zero F on 39 of the past 45 nights. The winter climate in Northeast China is very dry and cold, but the bitter cold this year is remarkable."
In Argentina late planted crops are now faced with cooler than normal temperatures: "Drought is rapidly resolving but the final outcome in corn and soybeans is still uncertain. Planting got strung out over a 3-month period due to record wetness in the spring, occurring in fits and starts. March normally marks the beginning of the corn harvest, but most of the crop this year may not be gathered until May and June. The new worry is cold temperatures. Strong cooling has occurred in March, slowing down development. Late planted crops need heat units. Temperatures last week were 3-5 F below normal. The new forecast remains very cool," they say.
