Wheat firmed. Oilseeds tended lower.

• Chicago wheat December contract up US3.25 cents per bushel to 558c;
• Kansas wheat December contract up 4.5c/bu to 491.75c;
• Minneapolis wheat December contract up 5c at 539.75c;
• MATIF wheat December contract up €1.50 per tonne to €194.75;
• Corn December contract down 0.5c/bu to 369.25c;
• Soybeans November contract down 2.75c/bu to 1019.75c;
• Winnipeg canola November down C$5.20 to $521.20;
• MATIF rapeseed November contract unchanged at €391;
• Brent crude November contract up US$0.28 per barrel to $41.72;
• Dow Jones index up 140 points to 27,288;
• AUD weaker at $0.714;
• CAD unchanged at $1.331;
• EUR weaker at $1.168.

Markets:

• GASC was, as expected, higher. Last tender the lowest Russian offer was US$235/t – this time round the cheapest boat was $242/t. They ended up buying 405,000t which was a mix of Russian, France and the Ukraine – no Polish this time round.
• French featuring in the offer line-up is an indication of how elevated Russian values are. Additionally, this highlights how cheap Europe is on a relative basis.
• Global demand keeps ticking along – Thailand buying 180,000t of feed wheat at US$258/t which, back of envelope is well above Australian replacement.
•  Algeria is in for 50,000t of barley. Australian origin wheat replacement cost would be circa US$220-225/t cnf (best guess)
• Chicago wheat managed to hold on and finish in the black. It’s hard to know how much of the recent Chicago strength can be attributed to Russian cash.
• Fears continue to surround the second and/or third COVID wave – Europe one area already taking steps to control a wider outbreak.

Australia:

• New crop cash wheat markets were down A$3-4/t on the bid boards while ASX contracts were relatively unchanged with more liquidity trading late yesterday on the January and March 21 east coast contracts
• New crop barley showed some strength on the grower boards with values firmer by $2-3/t after the Saudi results and softer AUD
• Showers continued to push through parts of SA drip feeding the crop with much the same forecasted for the balance of the week
• Reports are now coming in with some damaged crops from Monday storm that rolled through parts of Junee with hail damage to wheat and canola crop.