An early spring in the US has planters in the fields. Texas has sown around 20% of its expected area already. In the oilseed markets US soybeans closed lower after the Brazilian currency slipped after recent gains. Big weekly crush numbers did not prevent a weaker close.

There isn’t much in the way of food for the bulls this week. Egypt put out a wheat tender last night. This will be interesting considering they just devalued their currency. As mentioned yesterday Egypt is having a bit of trouble finding the US dollars to pay for purchases. The official exchange rate was much lower than the rate on the black market which meant that US dollars were not flowing through the official coffers. The reduced official rate should make the banks more competitive and this is expected to increase USD reserves. I can’t see why the black market won’t simply follow the move lower, time will tell.

The big issue with the devaluation of the Egyptian pound is that some believe it may encourage the GASC to try and force wheat prices still lower in an attempt to continue to buy wheat at the same converted value in domestic terms. If this is the case than wheat into Egypt could theoretically slip up to 13%.