by Agrimoney.com
The sell-off triggered by the US Federal Reserve's threat to pull back on ultra-easy monetary policy waned a little on Friday.
Indeed, London shares rebounded 0.6% in early deals, and French stocks 0.9% after Tokyo equities recovered 1.7%.
But for agricultural commodities, many of which were late into this week's asset sell-off, the opening was less promising.
'Improved demand'
Kuala Lumpur palm oil, for instance, which hit its highest in nearly three months in the last session, gapped lower to stand at 2,441 ringgit a tonne at 09:45 UK time (03:45 Chicago time), a drop of 0.9% for the benchmark September contract.
This despite hopes for Malaysian palm exports raised by cargo surveyor data on Thursday, when SGS pegged shipments up 13.6% month on month in the first 20 days of June, and Intertek saw a 16.2% rise.
"The good export figures from cargo surveyors likely confirmed that the weak ringgit has improved the demand for palm oil," Singapore-based broker Phillip Futures said.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, rubber - which had also gained some comfort earlier in the week from being a non-dollar commodity, so not losing competitiveness as the greenback soared – hit a nine-month low of 228.00 yen a kilogramme before closing down 0.7% at 236.30 yen a kilogramme.
Chinese weakness
However, a standout underperformer was a geography, China, which remained under a cloud following a weak reading from a flash HSBC survey on manufacturing activity.
Shares fell 0.5% in Shanghai, while hitting a six-month low in Hong Kong.
Among agricultural commodities, which also played catch-up from losses in US markets in the last session, soymeal for January tumbled 1.7% to 3,168 yuan a tonne on the Dalian exchange, recording a 2.7% drop at one point, while soybeans ended down 0.6% at 4,636 yuan a tonne.
On the Zhengzhou exchange, sugar tumbled 1.8% to 4,963 yuan a tonne.
Russia upgrade
One agricultural commodity which did manage gains was wheat, which added 0.4% to 2,730 yuan a tonne on the Zhengzhou for January delivery.
Which boded well for the talk of Chinese imports spurred by the purchase of 200,000 tonnes of the grain from France earlier in the week, and with rumours of purchases from Australia and Canada too, besides interest in US supplies.
Nonetheless, Chicago wheat for July eased back a little, by 0.4% to $6.97 ¾ a bushel, undermined by hopes for the world harvest stoked by an upgrade by Russia's agriculture ministry by 2m tonnes to 95m tonnes its forecast for the domestic grains harvest.
This includes a figure of 54m tonnes for wheat, in line with the US Department of Agriculture estimate.
This after Russia's Grain Union on Thursday pegged the country's exportable wheat surplus in 2013-14 at 18m-20m tonnes, up from some 11m tonnes in 2012-13.
"Cheap global offers and few concerns about global production will limit the ability of the wheat market to sustain rallies," Brian Henry at Minneapolis-based Benson Quinn Commodities said.
Egyptian u-turn
Furthermore, Egypt, the cash-strapped wheat importer, which on Thursday raised hopes of a return to markets when its supplies minister said that it would "of course" import before the end of this month, reversed course.
The supply ministry on Friday said that the country had enough wheat stocks to last until the end of 2013, and would not buy abroad "until the end of the current year".
Nor could spring wheat post gains for the best-traded September lot, despite more moisture delaying the last North Dakota sowings, with Canadian farmers, who have enjoyed better conditions, keens to sell.
"Contacts indicate continued selling by Canadian producers on higher trade, while domestic producers are only willing to take advantage of sharp moves higher," Mr Henry said.
Minneapolis-traded spring wheat for September eased 0.2% to $7.92 ¾ a bushel.
'I can see the poor condition'
With wheat, which has been something of a prop of grains the last few sessions, in retreat, that cut the chances of corn firmness, especially with fears of excessive Midwest heat in retreat.
Indeed, Luke Mathews at Commonwealth Bank of Australia quoted forecasts indicating "that most of the Midwest and northern US Plains will have a timely mix of rain, warmer temperatures and sunshine, boosting crop development that has been curbed by late planting and cool temperatures in the past six weeks".
Not that this has erased all crop concerns.
Mike Mawdsley at Iowa-based broker Market 1 said that he was "sitting on the fence at this moment" as regards price forecasts.
"I can see the poor condition of the corn out my window - it is hard to gauge soybeans yet as many are just being planted - but I also realise there are plentiful world supplies," he said.
"A lot of weather premium worked in'
Another broker said noted the impact of strong summer corn prices in 2011 and 2012 in discouraging farmer selling."
"Producers who have sold early over the past couple of years are reluctant to continue pricing corn/soybeans, especially when different sections of the country have had poor weather to start the growing year," the broker said.
"Of course we can't predict the weather in July and August but that will ultimately be the main deciding factor.
"However, we can agree that a lot of weather premium is likely worked into the market prices."
There was a little less on Friday, with the December corn lot shedding 0.9% to $5.55 ¼ a bushel, while the old crop July lot dropped 0.6% to $6.69 ½ a bushel.
Pull from futures
Soybeans did better this time, easing only 0.5 cent to $14.97 a bushel for the July contract, and in the new crop November lot by a relatively low 0.5% to $12.78 a bushel, despite the setbacks to Chinese soy values.
Options may be playing a part, with the expiry of July contracts today, and Benson Quinn noting "heavy open interest at the $15.00-a-bushel strike price, for both puts and calls".
Also crush margins improved, with the July soymeal contract adding 0.1% to $446.20 a short ton in Chicago, where soyoil, the other main product of processing soybeans, gaining 0.1% to 48.45 cents a pound.
Softs rebound
In New York, some soft commodities, which suffered particular drops in the last session, staged some early recovery.
Arabica coffee, which suffered its biggest fall in nearly a year last time, rebounded 1.1% to 119.65 cents a pound for September delivery.
Raw sugar for July added 0.4% to 16.44 cents a pound.
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