Morning Snippets

16/11/11 -- It's turnaround Wednesday with the overnight Globex markets all lower, reversing some of last night's gains. The dollar is firmer again, with the pound falling to 1.5767 against the greenback.

South Korea has bought 55,000 MT of optional origin feed wheat from Australia's GrainCorp at just under USD260/tonne cost & freight. They've also bought a cargo of optional origin (probably Ukraine) corn at USD301.50 C&F from Glencore.

China's state buyer Sinograin has confirmed that it has bought six cargoes of US soybeans this week. It's not the ten cargoes that had been rumoured, although it's possible that they may also have purchased some South American origin as well. They also indicate that it's been the recent drop below USD12/bushel that has been the catalyst to tempt them into the market.

Ukraine's sunflower harvest is finished producing a crop of 8.8 MMT, 24% up on last year.

UK unemployment is now over 2.6 million and the number of 16-24 year olds out of work accounts for more than a million of that - a depressing new record. No doubt Ed Milliband will have something to say about that on tonight's news, the smarmy smug-faced alien. The number of Scots out of work has risen to 215,000 - so it's not all bad news.