Grain Prices Plunge

Grains, Soybeans Plunge by Chicago Limit on Rising Unrest in North Africa Bloomberg

Corn futures for May delivery tumbled the exchange’s 30- cent limit, or 4.2 percent, to $6.9025 a bushel as of 11:55 a.m. in Chicago. Earlier, the most-active contract touched $7.4425, the highest since July 2008.

Soybean futures for May delivery fell 65 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $13.16 a bushel, after plunging the 70-cent limit to $13.11, the lowest for a most-active contract since Dec. 20.

Wheat futures for May delivery dropped 59.75 cents, or 7 percent, to $7.96 a bushel, after slumping by the 60-cent limit. The most-active contract was still up 71 percent in the past year, before today, as drought cut supplies from Russia and floods eroded Australian crops.

U.S. Grains, Soy Sink MarketWatch

Traders scrambled to book profits after recent gains as escalating violence in Libya sparked concerns about the strength of the global economy and demand for agricultural commodities. At the Chicago Board of Trade, corn, soybean, wheat and rice futures fell the maximum amount allowed under exchange rules.

"Everybody wants to get away from risk at the moment," said Mike Krueger, president of The Money Farm, a North Dakota-based agricultural advisory firm.

The recent food shortage and inflation news seems to of been a scam brought on by speculators and now they have been caught with their proverbial pants down. This sell off could be due to the anticipated release, late this week, of a huge U.S. crop acreage forecast from the U.S. Department of Agriculture too.

Grain Future Prices

interesting, but what would be the reason to put a chaotic mindset out there, the only thing is that they control the futures market and well they are trying to make it look like everything is ok. Long stretch but who knows

They can stick their GMO soy and corn where the sun don't shine. These foods are doing a ton of internal unseen damage to everyone, and anyone speaking out about it in the medical field is shunned, discredited and ignored.

All this stuff is heavily manipulated anyway, I try not to take all the propaganda fear mongering too seriously.

www.insidestocks.com...

What the heck is going on? With all this talk of a looming food crisis, especially in regards to grains and corn you wouldn't think prices on future commodities would be tanking like this. Something is up. Wish I knew what!

Wheat peaked out almost 2 weeks ago and Corn peaked out overnight (given it's energy connection to oil via use for ethanol). The sell off is accompanied with heavy volume also. Bearish,,,the risk of a similar sell off looms for metals also.

This is definite manipulation.

The Free Market doesn't act this fast all of the sudden.

Someones playing with a loaded deck.

I'm calling cheat.

reply to post by muzzleflash

Commodity cycles peaked weeks ago (gold and silver lagging due to "current events"). Big players (commodity funds and "long only" ETFs) are trying to get out at the same time swamping potential bidders. This is how the markets work - most of the moves occur in impulses that only account for about 15% of the time....the rest of the time is spent "marking time" and treading water.

The future is locally sourced produce and knowing exactly what you are eating. If you go directly to your local farmer you can get a good price and possibly make some new friends.

Obviously in this circumstance we are talking about mass produce. I don't know what the situation is in the US, in my mind I imagine mainly big corporations running agriculture...

If you can start growing your own veg this Spring do it! This will be my first attempt too. Better late than never.

Originally posted by mutantgenius
www.insidestocks.com...§ion=grains

What the heck is going on? With all this talk of a looming food crisis, especially in regards to grains and corn you wouldn't think prices on future commodities would be tanking like this. Something is up. Wish I knew what!

Agreed and second that ! Something is very wrong with this picture .

reply to post by Regenmacher


Well time will tell here. 2010 crop yield was high, so why the 6 month climb in commodities since last June? Granted the 2010 numbers weren't clear until October, but still the futures market kept climbing after that.

This year could eat up supplies, with world floods, droughts, and possible fuel shortages, not to mention, our own weather.

Reg, nice find, but it's still all a mystery where we're headed.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


Good luck with your veggie garden. My daughter sings to my plants and they like it, so get the boom box going in the back yard! Wall street only matters to those who have big money. Peons like us have to keep trudging through life no matter what the markets say. Keep your money in your communities!

Originally posted by mutantgenius
www.insidestocks.com...

What the heck is going on? With all this talk of a looming food crisis, especially in regards to grains and corn you wouldn't think prices on future commodities would be tanking like this. Something is up. Wish I knew what!

The term used in the trading arena is called the "pump and dump". Although, I have never seen such a widespread media pump job, as I have witnessed with this recent global food shortage news, and then to see the the grain markets crash shortly thereafter. There was still current news coming out that is still hyping grain price inflation.


Another factor is the speculators could have dumped grain futures and grabbed onto crude futures for better returns. Libya looks like it's going to implode and that will wipe 1.5 million barrels of crude exports off the market.

IMHO
what we are witnesing is the direct minipulation of the markets
the G20 recognised that when food prices are to high govenments are toppled
this is a direct attempt to lower food prices to ward of riots
the manipulation has been shown by wiki leaks to be to force countrys to acept GMOs as the solution
but what happened is the greedy speculators and major market manipulators got too gready
this has caused prices for food comoditys to esculate and the fear is that people will revolt if food prices get to high

so instead of letting the market drive up prices that cause riots
they have shorted and sold short to force a drop
when the people have no food govenment will topple as seen in other countrys

xploder

reply to post by Regenmacher

Food-Price Fall Seen as Plantings Rise

A rush by farmers to expand plantings in many parts of the world is raising expectations that food prices may retreat as early as the second half of this year if weather conditions remain favorable.

The global rally in food prices over the past year has pushed prices of wheat, corn and soybeans to their highest levels since 2008, when food riots spread across the globe. This time, concerns over food costs have contributed to the latest unrest in the Middle East, and left many national governments scrambling to find solutions to keep disturbances from spreading further.

But the most powerful response seems to be coming from farmers themselves, especially in places like Russia, Brazil and Australia.

Interesting.

reply to post by Regenmacher


Good point about Libya. I don't try to pretend to understand the market, I just didn't understand how prices could be plummeting at such an alarming rate with all this talk of food crisis. With all the floods and fires etc over the past year or so I can't doubt a coming shortage. Couple that with a lack of stores of these items (some countries were required to keep some on stock for emergency, until it became a free market commodity)
So do you suppose they are artificially dropping the prices to buy it up for cheap and then rip us all off down the road, or are you saying that they are worried about rising fuel costs to distribute this stuff?

reply to post by Regenmacher


Yep. You may just have it there.

Let's take our money from where it was making us rich...and put it somewhere it will make us filthy f%#*!g rich!!!

They can grow food...they can't grow oil!

And here we sit helpless to the whims of the super rich.

Originally posted by SunnyDee

Well time will tell here. 2010 crop yield was high, so why the 6 month climb in commodities since last June? Granted the 2010 numbers weren't clear until October, but still the futures market kept climbing after that...

This story provoked a spike in produce and grain prices recently and the crop failures in South America and Australia was the reason given to climbing prices prior to this event

Freeze in Mexico decimates corn crop UPI

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Mexican officials said up to 1.5 million acres of field corn has been lost to a rare winter freeze in the farm-rich state of Sinaloa.

The yield loss is expected to be four million metric tons or about 16 percent of the nation's corn, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday.

This event reminds me of the oil price spike in 2008...

reply to post by mutantgenius


I think a lot of it is due to over speculation that is stimulated by fear propaganda, which is producing micro versions of boom and bust cycles. How much is reality and how much is derivative nonsense & price manipulation is anyone's guess.

reply to post by loam


Nice find loam. Easy to understand vs most of these commodity news reports.

reply to post by Regenmacher

Originally posted by Regenmacher
There was still current news coming out that is still hyping grain price inflation.

To your point, this just in from last night:

Farmers Fail to Meet Demand as Corn Stockpiles Drop to 1974 Low

The smallest corn inventories in 37 years are a sign farmers around the globe are failing to produce enough grain to meet rising consumption, even as planting expands and food prices surge.

Growers from Canada to Russia boosted annual output of wheat, rice and feed grain by 16 percent since 2000, not enough to keep up with the 20 percent gain in demand, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. While a Bloomberg survey of 25 analysts shows the agency on Feb. 24 may forecast a 3.5 percent increase in U.S. corn planting, the government says world stockpiles will equal 15 percent of use, the lowest since 1974.

Global inventories for all grain will drop 13 percent before the next harvest, the USDA estimates. That’s the first decline since 2007, when surging food prices sparked more than 60 riots from Haiti to Egypt. Increasing demand is causing isolated food shortages and accelerating inflation in developing countries even as it boosts farmers’ incomes and shifts planting strategies.