Wheat and soybeans ruled the roost at Chicago overnight both closing with double digit gains.
US traders reported another 210kt corn sale to China. As pig numbers in China begin to build back to pre ASF numbers demand for feed grain will continue to increase. The season hasn’t exactly been ideal in China this year and government stocks continue to be drawn down. Lower corn production in the EU is also helping demand.
The soybean market was on fire as speculators continue to bet that China will feature heavily in futures sales. The US trade agreement commitments, low Brazilian stocks, some poor crops in the US and in China all point to this being a pretty safe bet at present (there that should just about guarantee a collapse next week). Another 133kt of US beans were reported as booked with China yesterday.

Wheat found support from strong world values, lower production estimates for Argentina and spill over buying from the soybean pit. At the PNW club wheat values were unchanged while HRW was bid at an average price of US$6.71/bu for Dec. This is interesting as basis is flat thus cash reflected the full move in HRW futures. On the back of an envelope a 671c/bu number would equate to something like AUD$320 Newcastle port for 11.5% protein wheat, current cash bids here would indicate something closer to AUD$302. So we might see some upside in grade spreads as we get closer to harvest, if these current US bids are sustained.
Parts of Argentina remain in bad shape with some crops across N.Cordoba unlikely to be harvested. The prospect of rain there, also slim.