Ag Commodities: "Grain futures dance to tune of currency plays"

	Last	Chg
Corn	356-4	+1-2
Soybeans	972-0	+3-2
Wheat	437-6	+0-4

From Agrimoney:

The dollar keeps on falling.

The dollar index, a measure of the greenback against a basket of other currencies, fell a further 0.6% in early deals on Friday to 91.011, its weakest level since January 2015.

Besides market unease over the performance of the administration of US President Donald Trump, the latest dollar dip reflects the increased appeal of the euro, after the European Central Bank said on Thursday it will reveal plans on winding down its quantitative easing economic support programme.

Such an event would be of huge significance, in marking something of an end (in the eurozone at least) to the hangover from the world economic crisis.

Whatever, the euro dug in above the psychologically important mark of E1.20 to $1 secured in the last session, standing at E1.2046 in early deals, a gain of 0.2% on the day.

EU exports

The currency moves are hardly going unnoticed on agricultural commodity markets, where eurozone traders are bemoaning the resultant lack of competitiveness of eurozone exports, including those of grains.

Data on Thursday underlined this dynamic, in showing EU soft wheat exports so far in 2017-18 (beginning in July) down 48% at 5.25m tonnes, and barley shipments down 54% at 543,000 tonnes.

That said, there appears to be more than currency involved in the wheat decline, with the disappointing harvest in Germany, typically a key producer of higher protein wheat, a factor too.

Indeed, Agritel said that "France seems to have exported greatly," although especially to other European countries rather than outside the EU, "benefiting from a poor harvest and bad quality in Germany"....

...MUCH MORE