Early Call On Chicago

24/08/11 -- The overnight grains finished mostly lower in a modest reversal from recent gains. Wheat finished down 3-7 cents, with corn 1-2 cents lower and beans 2-3 cents easier.

StatsCanada pegged all wheat production there at 24.1 MMT compared with 23.2 MMT last year, 21.5 MMT from the USDA and higher than the average trade estimate of 23.5 MMT.

Russian, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and EU wheat output is also trending significantly higher than current USDA estimates.

The market is however ignoring all that and concentrating on the US spring wheat crop instead - typically 25% of US all wheat output or about the size of production in Iran.

The ongoing ProFarmer crop tour is throwing up some very varied yields for corn and soybeans with the disastrous ones grabbing more headlines than anything else as the market is developing that "universally bullish" look again - always a dangerous sign.

Double dip recession fears and US/European debt worries seem to have been forgotten about in favour of reckless gay abandon, and we know where that got us last time.

The USDA have confirmed the sale of 133,500 MT of HRW wheat to unknown.

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn down 1-2c, beans down 2-3c, wheat down 2-4c.