EU Grains See Little Change

02/11/16 -- EU grains closed mixed, with fresh news extremely thin on the ground.

At the close Nov 16 London wheat was up GBP0.10/tonne at GBP139.00/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was EUR0.25/tonne lower at EUR162.75/tonne, Nov 16 Paris corn fell EUR1.50/tonne to EUR164.75/tonne, Feb 17 Paris rapeseed was EUR2.00/tonne higher at EUR395.00/tonne.

Europe is expecting it's first cold snap of the winter, with "plummeting" temperatures in France set to halt vegetative crop development in it's tracks, according to Agritel.

As far as French corn goes "harvest works are still progressing with a confirmation of very disappointing yields," they say.

Russia is still wrapping up the last remnants of it's 2016 harvest, now seen at 95.1% complete at 120 MMT in bunker weight.

That includes a 75.8 MMT wheat harvest (98.2% complete) and one of 19.1 MMT for barley (97% complete). Corn harvesting is 60.8% done at 9.8 MMT.

Russian winter planting works are now complete on 17.0 million ha, or 97.7% of the government target. This compares to only 15.8 million ha this time a year ago.

Worries still remain over frost damage to wheat about to be harvested in Western Australia, and snow/heavy rain holding up the last 20% of the Canadian wheat harvest. At the very least this will likely cause some quality downgrades if not total crop losses.

The pound was firmer against the US dollar which was suffering a bout of pre-election nerves, but weaker versus the euro. The Bank of England are due to announce their latest decision on interest rates at midday tomorrow with few expecting any alteration.

Egypt's central bank is floating the country's pound as part of its drive to boost confidence in the economy, report the BBC. They are of course the world's largest wheat buyer. The move might pave the way for a bit more activity from GASC.