News Snippets
17/04/13 -- Having opened GBP2.00/tonne higher, May 13 London wheat is now only GBP0.25/tonne higher. New crop Nov 13 is also off the intra day high of GBP187/tonne to currently trade GBP0.20/tonne lower at GBP185.75/tonne. Paris and Globex wheat have also given up early gains to trade GBP1.25/tonne and 3 1/2 cents lower.
The pound has fallen to a 1-month low against the euro on rising UK unemployment and news from the BOE minutes of a 6-3 split on whether or not to increase QE at this month's MPC meeting.
Spring might not be here just yet, the BBC are forecasting a frost for Sunday morning's marathon runners to contend with. Whilst it's set to hit 79F in the south of France, and 72F in the north of the country today, the rest of the week is looking much cooler, with highs of only 50-52F on Friday.
Egypt say they have 71 days worth of wheat reserves. They'd normally be carrying six month's worth.
Russia say they've planted 1.45 million hectares of spring grains, around 5% of the planned area, which is ahead of last year's pace at this time.
Morocco are tendering for 50 TMT of EU durum wheat. Japan have bought 38,665 MT of feed barley/wheat and are tendering for 105,425 MT of milling wheat. Jordan are in for 100 TMT each of wheat and barley, although they've passed on both several times lately.
Italy's Jan grain imports were up 21% to 911 MMT, with corn imports more than doubling to 404 TMT.
The FAO say that India will export 7.5 MMT of wheat in 2012/13 (Jul/Jun). They reportedly picked up a best bid of USD304/tonne in an overnight tender. There's talk of the government proposing to create 2 MMT worth of extra grain storage facilities. Wheat procurement in Punjab is underway, with government agencies and private millers buying around 360,000 MT so far from the 2013 harvest.
Dryness in Australia is starting to get flagged, with one report this morning saying that soil moisture in areas of New South Wales was less than 30% of historical averages for the week ending April 7th.
Meanwhile, Fargo in North Dakota has still not reached 50 F on any day this calendar year. Further south "Another hard freeze is predicted this week with a fresh cold outbreak. Lows in the mid-upper 20s F would develop Thursday morning on the High Plains and throughout hard red winter wheat Friday morning," say Martell Crop Projections.
