USDA has pegged the US wheat crop as 15 per cent harvested, and lowered the good-to-excellent rating by 1pc to 50pc. On corn, 95pc of the US crop has emerged, and 71pc is rated good to excellent, down from  75pc last week. Soybeans are 93pc planted, and spring wheat is 4pc headed. Conditions are getting a little dry in parts of the corn belt, and this supports the fall in the crop rating. US sorghum is rated at 48pc good to excellent, and this figures fallen 16pc in the past two weeks. With the all-important 30 June stocks and acreage report getting closer, many private analysts are starting to have their say on planted area. Informa announced its corn planting forecast is 1.17 million hectares below the latest USDA guestimate. All else being equal, that would take the carry-out from an eye-watering 84.4M tonnes (3.323 billion bushels) to a less painful 72.1Mt (2.84bbu); that’s still heavy, but would certainly add some support to current values. On the flipside, Informa reallocated what area corn lost mainly into soybeans.

US equity markets rebounded as the Federal Reserve announced it was on a buying spree, and expanding its purchasing program to include more corporate bonds in the secondary market. This is a clear indication that the Fed will stop at no lengths to provide liquidity, despite markets seemingly shaking off domestic and global disturbances.  The spin-off was another round of USD selling, which lifted the AUD back above US69c. Technically, the AUD’s rejection of the recent low is supportive to a push higher. Charts suggest a push above 70c seems likely although, as the old saying goes, every ship that sank had a chart room.