Gleadell Daily Grain Comment - 24 March 2017

[ADM Agriculture]

• US markets – soy lower (lowest close since Oct 14th) on continued long liquidation. Corn lower despite large export sales. Wheat follows lower despite large export sales with US drought concerns limiting losses.
• Rabobank estimates US soybean acreage at 86.4mln acres (USDA outlook at 88mln) and corn acreage at 91.5mln acres (USDA outlook at 90mln).
• BAGE (BA Grain Exchange) raised their production for the Argentine soybean crop to 56.5mln t, up 1.7mln t from their previous estimate.
• BAGE left their Argentine corn production estimates unchanged at 37mln t, but did comment that this could be increased as yields so far have been above average – estimated corn harvest 8% complete.
• IKAR (Russian Institute for Agricultural Market Studies) cut their Russian wheat export estimate to 27.5mln t, down from 28mln t previously, mainly due to the recent conflict with Turkey (USDA currently at 28.5mln t).
• New wires have Russian 2017 wheat crop at 62.5mln t vs 73.3mln t a year ago, grain crop 109.5mln t vs 112.5mln t a year ago.

Last Trade Settle:
London May ’17 Settle £146.50/t – down £1.65/t from previous close
Paris May ’17 Settle €167.25 – down €1.25/t from previous close
CBOT May ’17 Corn Settle $3.5675/bushel – down 2.00 cents/bushel from previous close
CBOT May ’17 Wheat Settle $4.2100/bushel – down 1.25 cents/bushel from previous close

Currency Today:
GBP EUR 1.1565
GBP USD 1.2495
EUR GBP 0.8645
EUR USD 1.0800