Nogger's Blog

24/01/11 -- The overnight grains closed firmer with the bulls nicely comfortable in a first class carriage supping Bollinger on this particular gravy train. Wheat finished with gains of around 7-10c, with beans up 6-8c and corn 1-3c higher.

Heavy, possibly drought-busting, rains are in store for Argentina during the next fortnight. Will they arrive too late to be of much help for corn? Certainly they should aid beans, planting of which isn't even fully completed yet.

The market seems to be ignoring this forecast though and concentrating on continued rains in Australia, dryness in China and extreme cold in the US.

French wheat has set new three year highs as stocks dwindle, America has plenty - but there's no point giving it away is there? It's a sellers market.

Buyers meanwhile are scratching each others eyes out to get to the front of the queue.

The US EPA said that they will extend the recently announced E15 blend of 15% ethanol in gasoline to include vehicles built from the 2001 model year and later (from the 2007 upwards permitted in October).

That's another shot in the arm for corn demand then. Not that it really needed it. China keep buying soybeans like they're the last iPad in the store and meanwhile the US wheat shop is the only one left open after the Australian one got flooded, the Russian one burnt down and the French one is only open between midnight and 12.01am.

Oh, and guess what, that's right the USDA have just announced a sale of 114,000 MT of 2010/11 soybeans to a certain slightly jaundiced looking Far Eastern gentleman today.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn 1-3c higher; beans 6-8c higher; wheat 8-10c higher.