Current Market News

Date: Friday 18th May

It was another positive session on the ag-commodity markets overnight stemming from growing weather concerns and strong US export demand, and it came about despite fears the economic woes in Europe are deteriorating further, which pushed the Aussie dollar below 0.99 US cents and global equity markets sharply lower.  Wheat closed +19c, corn +5c, beans +16c, canola +$10, crude -0.3%, the Dow -1.2% and the AUD currently sitting at 0.9885.  Soybean prices pushed higher on the back of a 480kmt sale of US beans to China – the ninth largest soybean export sale ever for the US and after the USDA cut South American bean production last week, the strong demand is contributing to a tighter fundamental outlook, placing further pressure on the upcoming US crop.  Weather concerns across a number of wheat growing regions is triggering short-covering in the wheat market, with the Kansas region of the US forecast to be further impacted by hotter temperatures in the coming days, while the outlook for Australia remains dry through to the middle of next week.  Global equity markets were crunched again, with the Dow hitting four month lows, but it has contributed to the decline in the Aussie dollar in the past couple of weeks as the market flees risky investments to return the safe-haven of the USD.