Currencies

Sterling started the week losing some ground against the € on the back of concerns over the rise in the Indian variant cases and Germany closing their doors to UK visitors, however it has since moved back up to hit 1.16 again.  Against $, Sterling moved through that key 1.42 resistance levels which means that we could move higher still.  UK Government borrowing was reported as having fallen for the first time since the pandemic began last year.

Wheat

Wheat markets turned from their downward trend to begin creeping back up towards the back end of the week.  Initially it had felt as though the weather stories were diminished, encouraging heavy fund sell offs.  However, we have since seen significant volumes of corn bought by China again which turned the markets.  Matiff has also traded up around €6 on the back of a large tender to Saudi Arabia.

UK markets have followed the general trend, but with added support from the latest UK Supply &Demand estimates.  The report stated that the UK would be short of around 302,000 tonnes of wheat going into the critical harvest period, and the question remained as to whether this would be covered by UK early harvest new crop, or if it would need to be imported material.  The same report also anticipated the 2021 harvest would produce around 14.6 MlnT of wheat, some way short of the 15.98 MlnT minimum needed to put us in the right balance and alleviate that need for imports.

Soya

Soya has been led by the corn market, turning back into the green towards the back end of the week. US plantings are progressing well at 74%, ahead of the five year average, however, we do now need a perfect crop if prices are to keep at a sensible level. As we have mentioned before, the US plantings are below the ‘magic’ 90 Mln Acres the trade had said would be needed to fill carryout levels to a point where they were not seen as too tight. Weather is going to very much be at the forefront of this crop and pod development will be very closely monitored.

And Finally…
Britain’s First Illegal Bitcoin Mine Raided By Police

The site in the West Midlands had been raided after several reports that it was being used as a cannabis farm because of the coming and goings at odd times and large ventilation ducts.  A police drone picking up a heat source seemed to support that theory but after raiding it, police discovered around 100 computers stealing thousands of pounds worth of electricity, direct from the national grid. 

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are ‘mined’ by high powered computers continuously solving mathematical algorithms.  One of the main selling points of Bitcoin is that it is used anonymously, meaning it is unregulated currency, which can therefore be used to fund criminal activity.  Although the mining of these coins and trading them is completely legal, mining them by stealing electricity of the grid is not!

Regards,
Kay Johnson & Martin Humphrey