by Agrimoney.com
Oats got it right after all.
The grain, by Chicago tradition a leading indicator, had attracted comment by early on looking keenly to extend its succession of winning sessions to eight.
And it ended Friday with a 2.3% gain to $4.07 ½ a bushel for the July contract, taking its headway so far this month nearly to 9%.
Other grains indeed, more or less, followed after a humdrum start, although there was reason other that the adage "oats knows" given for the increases.
'One significant weather debate'
The main one was the wet tone to the Midwest weather outlook, when farmers are looking to wrap up their corn sowings and catch-up on soybean plantings too.
Prices appreciated from a weak start thanks to forecasts of "a wet weekend of weather and concerns about finishing corn planting, especially across Iowa, offering support", Benson Quinn Commodities said.
Not that all the forecasts are in agreement.
"The market has come down to one significant weather debate," Darrell Holaday at Kansas state-based broker Country Futures said.
"The GFS model has continually indicated a system moving down through Iowa at midweek next week and the European model indicates that system will stay north and will not move down through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois."
'Not want to get caught short'
Why this matters is that planting looks set to be halted again this weekend, notably in the key state of Iowa, as a band of rains moves through.
"If the midweek system does not occur, farmers will be back in the field by midweek and would likely finish up by June 15," Mr Holaday said.
However, for now, Benson Quinn said that "the trade does not want to get caught short if Iowa does see upwards of 2 inches of rain" this weekend, as some forecasts show.
And this ahead of Monday when the US Department of Agriculture will unveil its next set of keenly-watched planting progress numbers.
Key figure
"Trade looking for corn to be 95% planted and beans 70% planted come Monday's crop progress report," Benson Quinn said.
At Chicago broker Rice Dairy, Jerry Gidel said: "I'm not sure how they will get above 93%," after wet conditions this week," although in Illinois they may have managed a better shot and got something done."
But the exact figure matters, given that the sowing season is now approaching its close, and with every percentage point equating to nearly 1m acres of corn that could end up abandoned, or switch to another crop.
New crop December corn added 1.9% to $5.58 ½ a bushel, with its chart picture improving too as it crossed decisively back above its 100-day moving average.
'Roll starts today'
For soybeans, the end of the sowing window is a little more distant, making the rains a little less crucial – and, indeed, with the prospect of some lost corn acres switching to the oilseed.
Still, investors injected risk premium on the idea of farmers maintaining a below-normal pace, and the new crop November lot added 1.9% to $13.30 ¼ a bushel, a four-month high for the contract.
That was significantly better than old crop July soybeans could manage, ending up 0.1% at $15.28 ¼ a bushel, depressed by the onset of the Goldman and UBS commodity index rolls, in which index funds sell out of nearby lots, ahead of expiry, and switch into later-dated contracts.
"Goldman roll starts today – selling the July and rolling long positions to the September and November contracts," Benson Quinn said.
Old crop July underperformed too, in adding 0.5% to $6.66 ¼ a bushel.
'Not backing off at all'
Soybeans' decline was also hastened by the drop in soymeal, included in the UBS index for the first time this year, which fell 0.3% to $452.50 a short ton for July delivery – while soaring 2.2% to $396.60 a tonne for December delivery.
The moves defied continued surprise over the extent of near-term US soymeal exports, which came in at a solid 134,000 tonnes for old crop in the latest US export sales data, released on Thursday.
That took the total exported or ordered for 2012-13 to 9.2m tonnes, well above the 9.0m tonnes forecast by the USDA fort the whole season.
"Old crop soymeal sales were at higher end of trade expectations which leads to concerns the USDA is understating soybean crush," Paul Georgy at Allendale said.
Country Futures' Jerry Gidel said: "Importers are not backing off at all. And this when Argentina is meant to be around the corner with all the supplies you could need."
Japan wheat snub
Wheat lost around too, albeit not a huge amount, with Chicago's July contract ending down 0.2% at $6.96 ¼ a bushel.
It can be tricky for the grain to rise at this time of year anyway, as harvest ramps up, bringing a spike in supplies and so adding price pressure.
But weakness was exacerbated by a refusal by Japan, as it purchased 164,000 tonnes of wheat from Australia, Canada and the US, to buy US western white wheat for a second week in a row over the finding of genetically modified plants in Oregon.
The refusal added to ideas that the GM furore, involving a Monsanto strain of which development stopped eight years ago, has legs yet.
'Large wheat stocks are left'
Minneapolis spring wheat did a little better, in holding its ground at $8.05 a bushel for September delivery, given some support by the rain delays to sowings in North Dakota – even if farmers over the border in Canada are doing better at planting.
But in Europe, Paris wheat for November eased 0.2% to E204.00 a tonne, while London wheat for November fell 0.2% to £175.25 a tonne, the contract's weakest close in seven months.
"The UK balance sheets would suggest large wheat stocks are left," David Sheppard at UK grain merchant merchant Gleadell said.
"With weather conditions improving, limited demand and harvests set to commence soon [on the Continent], old crop values could soon lose their premiums over new crop, and long holders should consider selling."
Softs soften
For soft commodities, macro markets had more of a say in price moves, and in particular a return to the Brazilian real to depreciating against the dollar.
As the dollar recovered on Friday - helped by some well-received US jobs data, albeit statistics which unnerved some markets such as copper in raising the threat of a removal of quantitative easing – the real topped 2.15 to the greenback, its weakest level since May 2009.
With Brazil the main producer and exporter of many soft commodities, such as arabica coffee and sugar, that sent New York's dollar-denominated futures prices lower too.
Raw sugar for July dropped 0.3% to 16.43 cents a pound, with July arabica coffee faring particularly badly, slumping 1.9% to 126.95 cents a pound.
Cotton, for which Brazil is not such an issue, eased the minimum 0.01 cents to 84.86 cents a pound for July as investors pondered what to make of China's announcement that it is reviewing its controversial stockpiling programme.
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