European market

Yesterday's generalised drop in grain prices occurred amid a more general bearish trend on all financial markets.

The "high rates for a long time" policy is raising concerns. Moreover, better-than-expected employment figures in the United States have led financial operators to fear new rate hikes by the Fed, despite the pause announced on Wednesday.

The dollar's rise is penalizing the commodities sector. Oil, however, is holding its own. It managed to hold on to $90/barrel in New York, notably due to the ban on diesel and gasoline exports announced by Russia.

On the wheat market, with the week's wave of tenders from Algeria and Egypt now over, the bearish mood and competitive pressure from Russian wheat are back in the spotlight.

Corn and Rapeseed on Euronext are falling in the wake of corn and soybeans under harvest pressure in Chicago. Harvest pressure is also present on canola, which fell to a 3-month low in Winnipeg on the back of better-than-expected yields.

Discussions between Ukraine and its neighbors on the flow of Ukrainian grain exports remain active, and have dominated European debates for the past week.

American market

Given the general lack of confidence in the financial markets and the 6-month high of the Dollar Index, funds were selling all commodities in Chicago yesterday. They sold 12,000 lots of soybeans, 6,000 lots of corn and 6,000 lots of wheat.

Add to this external sluggishness the pressure of the autumn harvest starting in the United States, along with disappointing weekly export figures, and the conditions for a sharp drop in prices are in place.

Weekly US wheat export figures were in line with expectations at 321,700 tonnes. The figures for soybeans, at 434,100 tonnes, and corn, at 566,900 tonnes, were clearly disappointing. These two products continue to be penalized on the international stage by the very strong domination of Brazil and the low water levels in the Mississippi.