AWB market update

Wheat made some impressive gains by the end of last night's session in Chicago, supported by higher calendar spreads and supportive gains to CBOT corn.

Export volumes from the US continue to impress, with Brazil being an active buyer.

However much of this action was closer to Kansas City trading, with the Chicago being more of a market for Chinese tenders, which have been scarce in recent weeks. With further cooler weather forecast for Parana, the Brazilian state, the future prospects of tenders to the country look promising.

Chicago wheat for Sept 2013 is 7 cents higher at 637½ US cents a bushel.

Corn futures were significantly higher by the closing bell overnight, with double digit gains for September, December and March futures.

Much of the positive influence in the market came from recently released weather reports, indicating warmer conditions in the 5-7 day forecast for the US Northern Midwest, where a lack of rainfall is prompting speculation on crop conditions and yield moving toward the end of this month.

Further to this, it has been suggested that the USDA may have overstated planted acres of corn in the US by as much as one million acres, where wet conditions prevented planting as previously estimated.

Chicago corn for Sept 2013 is 16¾ cents higher at 481½ US cents a bushel.

Canola performed very well in yesterday's session in Winnipeg, managing to post solid gains and remain above resistance levels into the bell.

Despite the $500 per tonne level triggering some buy stops, positivity in external markets (notably the Chicago soybean complex, Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed) supported the positive outlook.

Later in the session an increase in grower selling limited further gains, with the higher Canadian dollar and supportive weather forecasts for the Prairies also checking the momentum.

Winnipeg Canola for Nov 2013 is $8.40 lower at $502.60 Canadian dollars per tonne.

The Australian dollar is currently trading at 0.9138 USD.