Nogger's Blog

25/04/12 -- Heavy rain is forecast for many parts of the UK again today, with planty also on the cards for France, the low countries and western Germany. A bit of warmth to go with it wouldn't go amiss. There's a chance that the south east might see 17C by Saturday but that's about as warm as it gets, according to the BBC.

Soybeans put in another impressive performance last night, which has continued into the overnight market where front month May is currently 16 3/4 cents higher at USD14.78 - the highest for a front month since September 2008.

That's interesting as I was listening to an audio report just yesterday morning that said if beans break through USD14.66 then the next resistance level is USD16.00!! Audio link here. Click on the play button in what looks like an ad to the left of "This morning’s large corn sale to unknown destinations".

Talk of soybean crop losses in Argentina due to a hard freeze are catching the eye, as too is news of Oil World and Michael Cordonnier cutting their estimates there by 1.5 MMT and 2.0 MMT respectively yesterday. The latter's 41.5 MMT is now 3.5 MMT below the USDA's latest effort.

The UK economy is officially back in recession, although you'd be forgiven for not having noticed that we'd climbed out of the last one.

US cattle futures closed limit down last night after the USDA confirmed BSE had been found in a dairy cow  at a rendering facility in central California. More on this including a video interview with the USDA’s chief veterinarian here. The message is consumers can be confident in safety in the food supply chain. In a quick vote of confidence South Korean retailers have reportedly already pulled American beef from their shelves.