The Covid numbers out of India sound astounding but less so as percentages when looking at the data as a reflection of the 1.336 billion people living in India. So currently there has been a reported 18 million cases, 1.35% of the population. Of that 18m there has been a reported 201k deaths, that’s a mortality rate of roughly 1.12% of cases. In all fairness to India that stacks up as pretty good considering what they have to deal with. Compared to the USA with a population of 328.2 million and a reported case load of 32.2m, that’s about 9.8% of the population. The US mortality rate is also higher at 1.78% of total cases.
Australian stats are pretty good in comparison, a population of 24.1m, an infection rate of just 0.13% but the mortality rate is high at 3.01% of those infected dyeing.

US grain futures saw a session mostly dominated by profit taking after recent moves higher. Corn and wheat futures at Chicago were a little lower by the close while soybeans managed to close in the black on the nearby but outer months were also lower. On the charts July corn is starting to trend more towards neutral but could still see a few lower closed ahead in the short term. Wheat in July is reflecting a similar position on the stochastic and could also see another few session of downside leading into the expiry of the May contract. The rainfall, or lack thereof, in Brazil remains the key to most of this in the short term. Weekly US crop conditions ratings will start to have more of an impact week on week as we move into May and we see more spring wheat sown in N.USA and the Canadian Prairies.