EU Wheat Declines On Outside Influences

May London wheat ended Monday GBP0.60 easier at GBP98.40/tonne, with May Paris wheat down EUR1.50 at EUR128.00/tonne.

Last week we had what Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg had to say on the television influencing the wheat market, today we get Goldman Sachs facing fraud charges in the US and the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption having their say.

What next I ask myself? Who wins the BBC's Over The Rainbow?

Whilst nobody seems to be seriously thinking that the Icelandic situation may harm wheat production in Europe, it is certainly causing some economic damage judging by the sight of an almost tearful FlyBe CEO on the national news last night.

The oil market took a hit as all those planes on the tarmac aren't burning anything, with crude now down by around USD4/barrel since last Thursday.

The Goldman Sachs affair seems to have knocked investor confidence in general too. Ideas that there may be similar investigations into their activities in the UK and Germany look likely to hang of the market for some time also.

What were we supposed to be talking about again? Oh, yeah wheat. Things weren't going too badly for wheat early on, with London in positive territory thanks to the pound declining after weekend opinion polls showed another strong performance from the Lib Dems.

America opened lower and things only got worse from thereon in, which quickly got European futures into negative territory.

Reports suggest that wheat losses in Denmark may have been quite significant after the harsh winter. It also seems that spring planting is well behind in the likes of Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

As well as this likely adversely affecting yields, lack of available credit is also a problem. This may lead to some acreage reductions and further yield losses.