Corn (Source: CME)
US corn futures end lower on outside-market pressure and lackluster demand. Disappointment in the FOMC's decision not to take additional steps at this time to stimulate the economy dampened investor enthusiasm, encouraging traders to take profits following Tuesday's late rally, analysts say. A larger-than-expected crop forecast from Informa Economics added to the pressure, along with a lack of fresh demand. Exports have been weak recently. CBOT December corn ends down 1.4% at $6.45/bushel.
Wheat (Source: CME)
US wheat futures end mostly lower on outside-market pressure and a lack of fundamental support. Prices slumped along with corn as investors were disappointed by lack of stimulus from today's FOMC statement, analysts say. Meanwhile, export demand for US wheat remains weak due to competition from the Black Sea region and rain--and even snow--in the southern Plains should help a winter-wheat crop that is off to a slow start because of this year's drought. CBOT December wheat ends down 6 1/2c at $6.23 1/2 a bushel as KCBT December falls 5 1/2c to $7.13, However, MGEX December ends up 4 1/2c at $9.10 1/4.
Rice (Source: CME)
Losses accelerate in US rice futures, as market ends sharply lower amid lack of export demand for US rice and ample world supplies. Prices have fallen four straight days, most sharply, as prices end at session lows. CBOT Nov. rice ends down 40c, or 2.4%, to $16.14, a three-week low.
US corn, wheat fall on Greek debt woes; soy rebounds
SINGAPORE, Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. corn and wheat futures ticked lower, giving up previous session's gains as investors shunned riskier assets following renewed concerns over Greece's debt crisis and a slowdown in China's manufacturing.
"We have such a heavy macro-market influence, but agricultural commodities seem to be supported, particularly corn around these levels," said Adam Davis, a senior commodity analyst at Merricks Capital in Melbourne.
October rains good for Argentine corn, soy
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 1 (Reuters) - October rains in Argentina's main farming areas helped corn crops develop at a healthy pace while setting the stage for smooth November soy plantings, a meteorologist said on Tuesday.
The showers provided relief after a dry September sparked worries that the La Nina weather disturbance might cause problems for the development of corn plants and the sowing of 2011/12 soy, most of which will be planted this month.
Mixed weather signals for waning U.S. harvest
CHICAGO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Better harvest weather is moving into the eastern U.S. Midwest this week while wetter weather will slow the remaining harvest in the west, an agricultural meteorologist said on Tuesday.
"Rains by Thursday in the central Midwest will slow down harvest and while there will be some rain late Thursday in the east, after that there is improving weather," said Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA EarthSat Weather.
Viterra's South Australia Unit Shipped Record Grain In 2010-11 (Source: CME)
Viterra Inc.'s South Australia-based unit said that it shipped record export volumes of grain, mostly wheat, in the last marketing year. Viterra owns and operates a string of ports in South Australia as a result of its purchase of ABB Grain in 2009. The nearly 8 million metric tons of grain shipped out in the year ended Sept. 30 demonstrates strong demand for the state's grain, Dean McQueen, the company's executive manager for grain, said in a statement. Port Adelaide and Outer Harbour combined shipped nearly 3 million tons of grain in 2010-11, Port Lincoln exported 2.65 million tons, up by more than a third from the previous record, while Thevenard's exports reached 479,000 tons, Port Giles's 972,000 tons and Wallaroo's 982,000 tons. Viterra didn't provide year-earlier figures. "We expect widespread harvesting to begin shortly with above-average yields expected," McQueen said, adding that 1.7 million tons of grain are being carried over from the last season in Viterra's storage system.
Soybeans, Corn Called Higher as U.S. Farmers Cut Sales; Wheat May Advance (Source: Bloomberg)
What follows are opening calls for U.S. grain and oilseed markets.
-- Soybean futures may open 10 cents to 12 cents a bushel higher on the Chicago Board of Trade as U.S. farmers withdraw offers after prices fell yesterday to a three-week low, Jim Gerlach, the president of A/C Trading Inc. Fowler, Indiana, said in a telephone interview. Soybean-oil futures are expected to open 0.25 cent to 0.35 cent higher, and soybean-meal futures may open up $3 to $4 per 2,000 pounds.
-- Corn futures are called to open 2 cents to 4 cents a bushel higher on the CBOT amid speculation that the government will reduce its estimate of the U.S. crop in a report on Nov. 9, Gerlach said.
China Record Corn Crop Still Failing to Meet Demand for Feed: Commodities (Source: Bloomberg)
China reaped its seventh record corn crop in eight years in the harvest now ending. That still won’t be enough to meet demand, driving a fivefold gain in imports as prices head for the highest-ever annual average. Production reached 189.2 million metric tons in the harvest that began in September, 6.7 percent more than a year earlier, according to a survey of growers in the seven main producing regions carried out by Geneva-based SGS SA for Bloomberg. Imports in the marketing year that began last month may jump to 5 million tons from 1 million tons, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg.
While the supply predicted in the SGS survey would exceed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s estimate by more than 7 million tons, rising imports show farmers are failing to grow enough grain for livestock feed. The fivefold expansion in China’s economy in the past decade reported by the World Bank spurred a change in diets. The dairy herd almost tripled since 2000, and per capita pork consumption in the nation of 1.34 billion people rose 26 percent, USDA estimates show.
Wheat, Corn Futures Decline on Signs of Increasing Global, U.S. Production (Source: Bloomberg)
Wheat and corn futures fell for the second time this week on signs that grain supplies may be ample as countries around the world step up production. Soybeans were little changed. Global wheat production may be 688.7 million metric tons this year, Informa Economics Inc., an agriculture research company, said today in a note to clients. That was 1.1 percent more than the Department of Agriculture’s forecast last month. Output may climb to 694.2 million tons next year, Informa said. The company raised its forecast for the U.S. corn harvest to 12.5 billion bushels, or 0.9 percent above the USDA projection. “We keep finding more and more wheat, even though we’re using a lot,” Mike Zuzolo, the president of Global Commodity Analytics & Consulting in Lafayette, Indiana, said in a telephone interview. “Corn is likely to follow wheat because of ample supplies.”
China Corn Output Rises 6.7% to Record, Tops Forecast, Farmer Survey Shows (Source: Bloomberg)
Corn production in China, the world’s largest grower and consumer after the U.S., probably rose 6.7 percent to a record this year as farmers planted more and favorable weather boosted yields, a survey showed. Output jumped to 189.18 million metric tons (7.5 billion bushels) from 177.24 million last year, based on a survey of the seven largest corn-growing provinces during the harvest in September and October by Geneva-based SGS SA for Bloomberg. The estimate tops the 182 million tons forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Oct. 12. Chinese growers may boost acreage 4.6 percent in 2012, SGS said.
Domestic production will reach a record for the seventh time in eight years after farmers planted 6.1 percent more land than in 2010, according to the survey of farmers in the northeast provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia from Sept. 26 to Oct. 20. China is expanding domestic supply as rising meat and dairy consumption boost demand for grain used as livestock feed.
China Key Food Prices Fall On Week; Vegetables Lead -Ministry (Source: CME)
Key food prices fell in the week to Sunday, the Ministry of Commerce said. Food items account for about a third of China's consumer price index, and price movements in the sector are closely watched as the government tries to contain inflation. Vegetable prices were 2.2% lower compared with a week earlier, while pork prices fell 1%. Egg prices slipped 0.6%, though beef and mutton prices rose about 0.5%, it said. Edible oil prices held steady compared with the previous week, the ministry said. 'Food of the Future' Has One Hitch: It's All But Inedible. The breadfruit is a remarkable food: The prickly football-size pod is full of nutrients and energy. Growing on one of the earth's highest-yielding trees, it could even help alleviate world hunger, backers believe. There's just one problem: It tastes remarkably bland. "Like undercooked potatoes," says Diane Ragone, a Kauai horticulturalist.
"You have to kind of fool people to get them to try it," says Jacqueline Lau, corporate chef for Roy's Restaurant chain's Hawaii restaurants. It's time the world learned to eat it anyway, says Ms. Ragone. After hopping around 51 Pacific islands to find different breadfruit types, she has assembled more than 120 varieties in a large grove at a National Tropical Botanical Garden site on Maui. Ms. Ragone and Ms. Lau are part of a movement among breadfruit fans here to teach people to like the tasteless stuff. They have started in Hawaii by pitching it to cooks -- professional and domestic -- and plan outreach campaigns for the fruit. Ms. Ragone suggests sauteing breadfruit slices in butter until golden brown, then sprinkling cheese to make breadfruit nachos.
"Think of sauteed breadfruit as a platform for any kind of cuisine or flavor," she says. The breadfruit's proponents say it has unique qualities that could help feed the world's poor. One tree, a member of the fig family, can produce 450 pounds of fruit per season. The fruit packs 121 calories in a half-cup serving and is rich in fiber, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, copper and other nutrients. Its texture and yeasty odor remind some people of fresh bread. "I feel it's the food of the future," says Olelo pa'a Faith Ogawa, a Hawaii-born private chef. "If I were to speak to the breadfruit spirit, it would tell me: 'Grow me! Eat me!' It can feed villages!" Breadfruit has long been a staple in Pacific islands, from where it spread to the Caribbean and Africa. "It's something we all grew up with -- a comfort food," says Pamela Young, weekend anchor and food editor of KITV, the ABC station in Honolulu. "You steam it and add butter and salt."
But persuading neophytes to eat it has never been easy. The fruit is extremely starchy, hence, bland. It can have a mealy texture and tends to spoil quickly, turning into a gooey mush. Britain's Royal Society dispatched Capt. William Bligh to Tahiti in 1787 to collect breadfruit specimens to help feed colonies in the West Indies. After Capt. Bligh's Bounty crew mutinied, they tossed overboard the hundreds of breadfruit plants he had collected. Capt. Bligh finally delivered breadfruit trees to the Caribbean, but it took almost five decades for locals to develop a taste for it, according to some accounts of his mission. Epicurious, a recipe website, doesn't have an entry for breadfruit. Arnold Hiura, author of the 2010 book, "Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands," mentions it only as a "canoe plant" that Polynesian settlers brought in outriggers to Hawaii. "It's one of those forgotten foods," he says.
Even some Hawaii residents are hard to convince. "You know, it's fattening and it doesn't even taste that good," says Michelle Sewell, who has breadfruit trees outside her home on Maui island but never eats the fruit. Ms. Ragone, the horticulturalist, hadn't heard of breadfruit until she moved to Kauai in 1979 as a gardener. "The first time I ate it, I didn't really like it," she says. "It was really bland."
Sugar Rebounds as Industry Group Cuts Brazil Crop Forecast; Coffee Rises (Source: Bloomberg)
Sugar rose in New York for the first time in four sessions after an industry group cut its production forecast for the main cane-growing region of Brazil, the world’s largest supplier. Coffee also climbed. Brazil’s Center South region will produce 488.5 million metric tons of sugar cane in the 2011-2012 crop year, less than a previous forecast of 510.2 million tons, Unica, an industry group, said yesterday. Yields were hurt by freezing June weather during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Sugar futures fell 5.7 percent in the prior three sessions. “The report out of Brazil is helping support sugar, and I think the market may have gotten a little overdone with all the sell-offs we’ve had in the past 48 hours,” Hector Galvan, a senior trading adviser at RJO Futures in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.
Sugar, coffee rise, eye Fed, G20
LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - ICE sugar, coffee and cocoa futures rose in sympathy with shares in early trade after a rollercoaster week, as investors hoped for comfort on the weak U.S. economy and troubled euro zone from meetings of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Group of Twenty leaders.
Raw sugar futures rose on light technically driven buying, supported by a weaker dollar as markets looked towards meetings of the Fed and G20.
Indonesia cocoa exports slump for 8th month in Oct
JAKARTA, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Cocoa bean exports from Indonesia's main growing island of Sulawesi dived for the eighth consecutive month in October, and analysts said on Wednesday the trend is unlikely to improve as the country enters its rainy season.
The world's third-largest cocoa producer exported 6,877.80 tonnes of cocoa last month, versus 33,897.86 tonnes in the same period last year, industry data showed.
US cotton output seen down due to drought-ICAC
WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Severe drought in the southwestern United States will hamper domestic cotton production in 2011/12, while global output is expected to rise, an international farm group said on Tuesday.
The International Cotton Advisory Committee secretariat said high prices will drive world cotton production up 8 percent to the largest crop since 2004/05. Production will primarily be driven by China and India, with increases also expected in Pakistan, Australia, parts of Africa and Turkey.
Brazil 2011/12 CS sugar output cut again - Unica
SAO PAULO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Brazil's main cane-milling association cut its forecast for the current crop again on Tuesday and said next season would show "timid growth" as aging plants and bad weather exact tolls on output.
Sugar production from the main center-south cane region is now forecast at 30.8 million tonnes, down from 31.57 million tonnes projected in August, industry association Unica said in its latest forecast of the 2011/12 crop.
Brazil coffee crop muddles through erratic weather
BRASILIA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Trees in Brazil's Minas Gerais coffee belt have shed some fruit due to their weakened state following months of dry weather but the crop looks secure for now, the country's biggest cooperative said on Tuesday.
The world's top coffee grower is in a delicate early phase of the 2011/12 season, with tiny coffee beans forming following a wave of flowering, but an extended dry season earlier this year caused leaf loss causing trees to abort some fruit for lack of energy now.
S.Africa cuts 2011/12 sugar output forecast
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 1 (Reuters) - South Africa's 2011/12 sugar output is estimated at 1.855 million tonnes, from a previous forecast of 1.909 million tonnes, the South African Sugar Association (SASA) said.
Sugarcane crush was forecast at 17.029 million tonnes from 17.072 million tonnes, the industry association, which represents producers and millers of the sweetener in Africa's biggest economy, said in a statement on its website seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
Cameroon's lone cocoa grinder buys 3,745 T in Sept
YAOUNDE, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Cameroon's lone local grinder Sic-Cacaos purchased some 3,745 tonnes of cocoa beans in September, up from 2,091 tonnes the previous month, according to data from the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) and the company.
The figure showed a slight drop from the 4,034 tonnes the firm bought for the same month last season.
Indonesia Oct Sumatra coffee exports fall 72pct, down fifth mth
BANDAR LAMPUNG, Indonesia, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Indonesia's robusta coffee bean exports from the main growing area in southern Sumatra slid 72 percent in October from the same month last year, marking five straight months of decline as hot weather hit output and stocks, government data showed on Tuesday.
Hot weather conditions had hit crops earlier this year and resulted in current low stock levels, Muchtar Lutfie, research head of the Indonesia Coffee Exporters Association's (AEKI) Lampung branch, said in a statement.
China's 2011/12 sugar output seen up 15 pct-industry official
BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) - China's sugar output in the 2011/2012 crushing year from October is likely to be around 12 million tonnes, up 15 percent from 10.45 million tonnes last year, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, China's sugar consumption in 2011/12 is expected to reach 14 million tonnes, showing a shortage of 2 million tonnes, Liu Hande, the chairman of the Guangdong Sugar Association, said at a sugar conference in Haikou. His remarks were made available in a transcript published on Guangxi Sugar Network's.
China's rubber buyers want to renegotiate contracts-trade
SINGAPORE/BANGKOK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - China's rubber buyers want to negotiate new contracts with Thai sellers after tyre grade
dipped below $4 a kg, raising fears of another round of defaults by the world's largest consumer of the commodity, dealers
said on Wednesday.
Buyers in China shocked the market late in 2008 when they refused to pay for their cargoes after prices tumbled by more than
half from their peaks in the wake of a global economic meltdown that drove automakers in Europe, North America and Japan to
their knees.
Euro Coal-Nov S.African trades at $104.75/T
LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - European prompt physical coal prices fell by around $2.00 percent on Tuesday after the Greek decision to call a referendum over its debt bailout revived concerns about the euro zone, pumelling equities, the euro, copper and oil prices.
Oil fell by over 2 percent or just over $3.00 a barrel to $106.93 at 1700 GMT.
Power to use 1 mln tonnes more coal in 2011/12
TOKYO, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Electric Power Development Co (J-Power) expects to consume 22 million tonnes of thermal coal in the year ending in March, up 1 million tonnes from a year earlier in the wake of the nuclear disaster in March.
J-Power, Japan's wholesale power producer and biggest thermal coal user, revised up its coal-fired plant utilisation rate to 80 percent in 2011/12 from its April projection of 72 percent. The run rate compared with 78 percent in the year ended in March.
Russia oil output hits new high after duty cut
MOSCOW, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Cuts in the crude export duty resulted in Russia's oil production, the world's largest, reaching a post-Soviet high of 10.34 million barrels per day (bpd) in October, the Energy Ministry said on Wednesday.
This compared with a previous record high of 10.30 million bpd hit in September.
Strong fuel demand growth to strain supplies
SINGAPORE, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Strong fuel demand growth from emerging economies will strain global supply and keep energy prices high even if demand from developed economies contracts, participants at a Singapore energy conference said on Tuesday.
Demand has grown to 87 million barrels per day from around 84 million bpd in the past five years despite the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, CEO of Brazilian state oil firm Petrobras , said.
Libyan oil output hits 567,000 bpd - NOC
TRIPOLI, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Libya's oil production has risen to 567,000 barrels per day, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Nouri Berrouin told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
The Tuesday morning production report showed that output from Spanish oil and gas company Repsol's El Sharara field had risen to 90,000 bpd accounting for the bulk of the latest upturn in flows, he said.
Oil Slides After Europe Witholds Greek Aid, U.S. Crude Stockpiles Increase (Source: Bloomberg)
Oil fell, paring yesterday’s gains, on speculation that Europe’s dispute with Greece over a referendum on a bailout agreement threatens to intensify the debt crisis and derail the region’s economy. Futures slid as much as 58 cents, or 0.6 percent, after European leaders severed aid payments to Greece and warned the country it will surrender all payments if it votes against a rescue package agreed last week. Brent crude’s technical indicators are bearish in the near-term amid “significant” downside risks to demand, according to Standard Chartered Plc. U.S. oil and gasoline supply rose more than forecast last week. “Near-term we are bearish, given precarious growth sentiment, projected euro weakness through the fourth quarter of 2011 and slowly improving supply prospects,” Helen Henton, London-based head energy analyst at Standard Chartered Plc, said in a report e-mailed today.
Iron Ore-Shanghai rebar at one-week low; ore extends gains
SHANGHAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Shanghai rebar futures fell again on Wednesday, reaching its lowest level in more than a week, as fears about the viability of a European debt deal re-emerged, despite iron ore prices extending gains amid buying by Chinese steel mills.
Asian stocks wiped out all gains made during the huge relief rally last week after European leaders had agreed a basic framework to help reduce Greece's huge debts, boost the region's bailout fund and strengthen banks.
Short supply to keep lifting metals prices-PDAC chief
HELSINKI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Key metals like copper, iron ore and manganese may rise further in the long term as emerging countries are using more of them and reserves are decreasing, the head of a Canadian mining industry group said on Monday.
"Iron ore and all the real fundamentals are going to continue to rise, because there is finite amount of those metals," Scott Jobin-Bevans, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) told Reuters on the sidelines of a Finnish mining seminar.
Iron ore price drop to boost Chinese imports by sea
LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Weaker international iron ore prices are driving high-cost Chinese domestic suppliers to cut output, which will push the top consumer and steelmaker to rely more on seaborne imports in the coming weeks, supporting the dry freight market.
International iron ore prices have dropped more than 30 percent since September, including a record 18 percent plunge last week, as lower steel prices have forced Chinese steelmakers to cut production.
India's iron ore exports currently minimal-trade body
MUMBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Iron ore exports from India, normally the world's third-biggest exporter, are currently minimal as a slump in prices since early September and high railway freight and export duties have made the business unviable, a trade body official said on Monday.
"(Iron ore exports from) Karnataka (state) is shut, in Orissa (state) railway freight is coming in the way along with export duty," said R.K. Sharma, secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI).
Tin Makers From Indonesia to Choke Off Exports Till 2012 to Revive Prices (Source: Bloomberg)
Twenty-five tin smelters in Indonesia, the largest shipper, agreed to extend an export ban until the yearend to boost prices, said Ismiyardi, head of the provincial parliament in Bangka Belitung, the top producing area. PT Timah, the world’s biggest exporting company, and PT Koba Tin back the extension, said Ismiyardi after an industry meeting. Timah is allowed to ship contractual sales, said Bangka Governor Eko Maulana Ali. Two calls to the mobile phone of Wachid Usman, the company’s president director, weren’t answered. Fifteen smelters had agreed to maintain the ban on Oct. 28. Tin plunged 17 percent in September on concern that Europe’s debt crisis may derail the global economy, prompting Indonesian smelters to suspend exports from Oct. 1 to try to drive prices to $25,000 per metric ton. The country represents more than 40 percent of global exports, according to Peter Kettle, research manager at St. Albans, England-based ITRI Ltd.
Top Gold Seers Forecast Record High in March (Source: Bloomberg)
The most accurate forecasters say gold will rebound from its biggest monthly plunge since 2008 and reach a record by March because economic growth is stagnating and Europe’s debt crisis is unresolved. Futures traded in New York may rise 13 percent to $1,950 an ounce by the end of the first quarter, according to the median of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The predictions are from eight of the top 10 analysts tracked by Bloomberg over the past eight quarters. Two declined to give forecasts. Holdings in exchange-traded products backed by bullion rose the most in three months in October, and the most-widely held option gives owners the right to buy gold at $2,000 by Nov. 22. Demand for the metal accelerated since May as slowing growth and mounting concern that European leaders will fail to contain the region’s debt crisis caused $7.5 trillion to be erased from the value of global equities.
Baltic index at near 1-month low, cargo volumes slow
LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates to ship dry commodities, fell to its lowest in nearly a month on Tuesday as a cargo slowdown on the larger capesize market continued to take its toll.
The overall index fell 53 points or 2.7 percent to 1,912 points in a fifth straight drop and was at its lowest since Oct. 5.
