Tuesday Snippets

More heavy snow fell again overnight across large parts of the UK, and there's plenty more on the way, according to the forecasters. It did amuse me how they pointed out on the news last night that the Met Office did tell us we were in for a BBQ summer that never came off, coupled with a prediction for a mild winter. cheers lads, don't give up the day job will you?

The pound is under the cosh again after data revealed that UK construction activity fell for the 22nd month in a row in December. it looks a nailed on cert that it won't be picking up in January with all this snow around either. Still, don't worry the Met Office reckon there's an economic recovery on the way!

Oil World have been the least bullish on Argy soybean prospects of late, pegging the crop around 48 MMT, citing poor quality of the planted beans amongst other things. They now say that they might be a tad on the low side saying that "the 2010 soyabean production prospects have improved and we now consider it likely that the crop will turn out above our end-November estimate of 48.0 million tonnes". They still consider that other trade estimates of 50-52 MMT are too high however.

Paraguay will produce a soybean crop of 6.7-6.8 MMT, according to Oil World. That's almost 75% up on last season's 3.9 MMT.

US job losses have shrunk to two-year low in December, according to data just out.