Currencies

The £ has continued in that same range of around 1.37 against the $ and 1.14 against the €, again on the strength of our vaccination programme.  We have lost some strength against the $ in the later part of the week with improved US economic data now since Biden’s inauguration, as hope of more decisive action around points such as the Covid Recovery Bill gains momentum. 

Wheat

Global markets have had a choppy week but are generally slightly lower.  The main support is coming from the corn market which rallied following old crop sales to China of 5.85 MlnT in a week! Chinese buying for all agricultural commodities has increased 120% year on year, as they look to expand their pig herds above their pre African Swine Flu levels. 

Liffe wheat has moved lower although now seems to have found a level.  Sales are slowing as was expected, with Covid reducing demand from certain sectors.  There are now questions over whether the UK will need as much as 1 MlnT of imported wheat for the rest of this season given the drop in demand, however we will still need imports so the downside impact on the market of that news is limited. 

New crop prices remain in `no man’s’ land, waiting for further details on crop development and yield projections however, news from Europe and the Black Sea is so far looking positive. 

Soya

Soya has had a choppy week, initially dropping lower but having since begun to level and creep back up.  There is an argument to say that the South American weather story has now been priced into the market, meaning that any new support to rally prices would need to come from Chinese buying.  It is worth noting that the Brazilian harvest is the slowest it has been in ten years, with delays to supply an already tight US market and in a year which has extremely strong early sales for Brazilian material as you would expect.  This could mean that we do still see that short term support for prices until the gap is bridged. 

And Finally…
Gigantic dinosaur unearthed in Argentina may be the largest animal to have roamed Earth

Patagonia is well known as once being the home of the largest land animals that ever lived but now palaeontologists extracting a new skeleton are unsure if they have found a new species or an oversized member of one which is already known.  The so far intact skeleton is still partly under rock on so will continue to be excecated but very accurate estimates of body size can be drawn from the humerus and femur bones.

It could however be decades before a scientific publication is made on the new find as all options and evidence is explored. 

Regards,
Kay Johnson & Martin Humphrey