The Aussie dollar is finally showing signs of heading in the right direction shedding 0.85% overnight. This may go a little way towards helping local values combat a US grain futures market that appears to be unable to find a floor. The AUD was weaker against all the majors as investors start to buy up US dollars on the back of weaker EU data and the expectation of US interest rate increases over the next few months.

Soybeans lead the US futures markets lower but wheat and corn don’t have the fundamental strength to compete with a sell off of any description at present so followed closely behind. The only contract that bucked the trend lower was MGEX spring wheat futures, the US Prime Hard wheat equivalent. The December spring wheat contract managed to close 2.5c/bu higher, not a huge win but anything without a minus sign in front of it is about as good as we can expect at the moment.

The EU cut its total wheat output further overnight reducing supply from 144.5mt to 142mt, more than 18mt lower than last year. The fall in production will have a direct impact on the EU’s export program which is expected to fall  to a four year low of 25mt. This will allow Russia to stake claim as the largest wheat exporter in 2016 with up to 30mt expected to leave their shows.