There was a healthy lift in chickpea futures overnight. Supply appears to be tightening for nearby product in India if you can believe the market wires. This does tend to support the $91 spread between January and March futures contracts, with March being the start of the Indian harvest. The million dollar question is will this increase in Indian domestic cash and futures values roll across into DCT bid in Australia today.
In the USA the stronger dollar didn’t help grain futures overnight with wheat leading the market lower. While corn staged a recovery to finish in the black wheat could not manage a similar feat. Good weekly US export inspection for soybeans helped beans close almost unchanged for the session. Dry conditions in Argentina were also said to be another supportive factor but a quick look at the weather maps, past and future for Argentina may lead one to think that some of these market analyst may struggle to understand soil moisture and the impact 25 – 60mm of rain in the last 14 days can have on a crop. Remember much of Argentina was hit by winter floods.
US weekly wheat export inspections were the 3rd lowest for the marketing year at 259kt and didn’t help US wheat futures fend off the weaker sentiment being created by a stronger dollar.
Canadian and European canola values also slipped. A mixture of technical trade and instability in the Euro had some speculative money withdraw. Weaker palm oil prices also hurt oilseeds thanks to talk of the EU insisting a more sustainable approach is made to prevent deforestation in Asia. Sometimes I wonder if this is environmental concern or simply a green tariff.