The bottom pickers were out in force last night. Grains in US futures rallied nicely but the stand out must have been crude oil which put on 24% placing it back above US$25.00 / barrel…lol. Useless info time, a barrel of oil will make about 68 litres of petrol.
Corn basis was mixed in the states with some buyers happy to follow the market cent for cent and even more in some locations while others were less convinced and actually peeled up to 15c off basis bids. US corn found some support from the weekly export sales report which pegged sales at 960kt. Not a bad looking number from the outside but most punters now doubt the US will export USDA projections for the 19-20 crop year.
Soybeans followed the energy market higher and spill over buying also saw ICE canola well supported. The rally in Canadian canola values and our slightly weaker dollar equate to a potential improvement in our domestic bids of up to AUD$10.71 today. This is nothing compared to the Chicago wheat market though. Moves in both soft and hard wheat futures were impressive. Nearby soft wheat was up 26.75c/bu by the close and covered a range of 32c in the session.
It was basically bargain hunters and technical trade supporting the wheat number. US export sales were disappointing at just over 220kt. News that Ukraine production is expected to be 12.5% lower than last year did help the sentiment.
There was unconfirmed talk that China had used the lower prices as an opportunity to pick up some US product. One gets the feeling that if these rumours are not confirmed in the very near term market sentiment may again turn negative.