Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Flush!: "Grains Plunge as Weather Revives Crops"

About six hours early with this post:
...Ignoring the weather related bullishness* has served us well in wheat but the psychology seems to be changing.
Long corn should work as a play on perception and possibly on actually declining yields.
Corn is down 5 1/2 cents at $6.7475 Wheat is down 10 at $6.9525....
Let the overworked margin clerks do their thing. Back tomorrow A.M.
From Bloomberg:
Corn fell the maximum allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade, wheat plunged to an eight-month low and soybeans tumbled on signs that changing weather conditions may improve crop prospects in the U.S. and Europe.

Hot weather next week in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of all three crops, may be shorter than forecast, aiding newly planted corn and soybeans, according to World Weather Inc. Rain is forecast in Ukraine and Russia, and moisture this month in Europe may limit wheat-crop damage caused by drought in France and Germany, Alfred C. Toepfer International GmbH, a grain trader, said in a report.

July corn futures, the contract closest to delivery, are down 15 percent in Chicago since touching a record June 10. Wheat has slumped 14 percent this month, and soybeans touched the lowest in five weeks. In the past year, prices jumped as global demand rose faster than output, eroding grain inventories, while drought limited production in Europe and too much rain delayed planting in the U.S. and Canada.

“It’s looking more like a classic performance of a bull market having run out of gas,” said Dale Durchholz, the senior analyst for AgriVisor LLC in Bloomington. “Buying interest is lacking with the good grain harvests expected out of the Ukraine and Russia this year and U.S. crops improving.”

Corn futures for December delivery plunged the 30-cent limit, or 4.4 percent, to settle at $6.5025 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the CBOT. The July, September and March contracts also fell by the daily maximum, as did July 2012....MORE