OK, Cyprus's debt problems have not disappeared.

But by taking the poor precedent of a tax on bank deposits off the table, and winning support from the European Central Bank for maintaining liquidity in the event of a flight of savers, the island wiped most of the furrows from investors' brows. For now, anyway.

Shares nudged higher, by 0.4% on Wall Street in late deals, after gaining 1.4% in Paris, and 0.7% in Frankfurt.

The safe haven of the dollar eased 0.2%, another support to commodities, which gained 0.6%, as measured by the CRB index.

Cocoa sweetens

And many agricultural commodities outperformed, notably cocoa which, remaining near multi-month lows on both sides of the Atlantic, picked up a bit of bargain hunting

Indeed, there are ideas that prices may have set a floor at their lows earlier this month, with chart watchers getting a boost from the rise in the nine-day moving average for New York's May contract thorough the 20-day moving average.

That has generally been a decent predictor of rising prices to come – although the last occasion, a weak breakthrough two months ago, provided a duff signal.

The contract closed up 2.5% at $2,152 a tonne, while its London peer added 2.0% to £1,459 a tonne.

'Good quarter of exports'

In Chicago, wheat wasn't far behind, gaining 1.9% to $7.36 a bushel for the May contract, now up 8% in two weeks, amid further talk of demand perking up, and some US crop fears too.

Libya added to the series of countries making purchases, buying 50,000 tonnes of wheat, albeit likely from Hungary, while Oman ordered 10,000 tonnes of Indian wheat and Algeria sealed deals for 350,000 tonnes, likely from France.

This following Tunisia's purchase earlier in the week, with Iraq and Jordan demand still in play.

Despite the preference for other origins in these headline deals, "US soft red winter wheat values remain competitive", Benson Quinn Commodities said, referring to the type traded in Chicago.

Meanwhile, US hard red winter wheat, as traded in Kansas, "is quietly putting together a good quarter of exports".

Weather concern

A supply fear re-emerged too, in terms of potential damage to the winter wheat crop from cold weather forecast for this weekend.

"Some concern is mounting about the cold temperatures moving down through the hard red winter wheat area," Darrell Holaday at Country Futures said.

"The biggest concern will be in the central and western areas of Oklahoma, especially if there is no moisture ahead of the cold temperatures," to give a snow blanket and protect seedlings from frost.

Unfortunately for growers, it looks like there will not be precipitation where it is needed.

'Very cold temperatures'

OK, the GFS model is quite generous on the moisture. But given the inconstancy of its forecast, its findings are likely "BS" according to WxRisk.com.

Other models show "most of the Plains and the upper Mississippi Valley/ western Corn Belt completely clear of any sort of rainfall or snowfall", with temperatures "just cold for late March".

In fact, what the models do agree on is "very cold temperatures for the Plains and Midwest next week".

Whether cold enough to damage crops, of course, will become clearer as the system nears.

But it encouraged holders of the large net short position in Chicago wheat to close holdings, putting upward pressure on prices.

Wheat for May rose in Paris too, boosted by Algerian demand, adding 2.0% to E243.25 a tonne, while adding 1.6% in London to clamber back over £200 a tonne, to 201.00 a tonne.

'Should be selling'

The idea of cold US temperatures kept upward pressure on Chicago corn too, in potentially hampering sowings, countering some bearish pointers.

One is that the grain is technically overbought, with US Commodities saying that "the corn market is now approaching the first level of overbought resistance".

Another is talk of farmer selling.

"Producers have been and should be selling corn at these levels," Benson Quinn Commodities said, forecasting that basis levels will "continue to show weakness on newly available supplies.

"There could be pronounced weakness corn basis levels, if the rally [in futures] continues."

'Limit the ability to plant early'

Still, other observers took a different tack, with US Commodities saying that "the near-record tight corn basis continues to drive the market higher.

"End users continue to scramble to cover usage prior to the March 28 report" on US stocks, expected to reveal US corn inventories some 1bn bushels lower, as of the start of the month, than a year before.

But, on the bullish side, Benson Quinn itself acknowledged that "the recent weather pattern will limit the ability to plant early, which will raise concerns about when the new crop is available".

Country Futures' Darrell Holaday said: "There is some concern developing about the cold temperatures in the first 18 days of March and the prospect for that to remain that way through March.

"The concern is the impact on corn planting. You know how a market feels about an early planted crop," which should, in theory, mean higher yields.

'More plants coming back online'

On the demand side, the grain gained support too from an improved US ethanol production number, up 12,000 barrels a day at 809,000 barrels a day last week.

US Commodities said: "Ethanol production continues to grow as more plants are coming back online due to the profitability," the latest ones being two Valero sites revealed this week as having the covers taken off.

Furthermore, stocks fell again too, by 223,000 barrels to 18.5m barrels, a sign of continued demand.

Corn for May gained, although by a relatively modest 0.5% to $7.32 ½ a bushel, losing its premium against wheat.

'Price rationing likely seems required'

Corn also lost ground against soybeans, which is not quite as Macquarie hoped, in a forecast that South American dynamics boded worse for prices of the oilseed than the grain.

Chicago soybeans for May closed up 0.9% at $14.09 ¾ a bushel on the day – its first gain in seven sessions.

Sure, "the trade lacks tangible evidence that demand for old-crop soybean exports exists", Benson Quinn Commoditied noted.

But the market is also "oversold" following its losing streak.

And, as noted earlier, Jerry Gidel at Rice Dairy issued a reminder of just how tight US stocks are, with 68% of forecast demand for 2012-13 notched up in the first half of the season,  meaning that "some price rationing likely seems required" to tailor consumption to supplies in the second half.

The implications are that the US soybean crush "will need to retrench 26% to 688m bushels", while exports in the second half "will be limited to 180m bushels or only 15.5% of this protein's first half demand".

Cotton rally frays

Cotton, however, lost its way, on ideas of Chinese plans to release cotton from government stockpiles, with India set follow suit.

With Chinese imports of US cotton a major support for New York futures, the idea of sales of some 3m tonnes from state reserves, as forecast by the International Cotton Advisory Committee, sent New York's May contract down 2.2% to 89.10 cents a pound.

This time, the new crop December lot outperformed in losing only 0.3% to 87.98 cents a pound.