Good Morning!
I hope things are running smooth for you. I’m out and about this week, doing meetings and talking markets. I’m in Fargo, where the high on Wednesday was around zero, while the low overnight isn’t even worth talking about. I’ll end my week in Grand Island, Nebraska where they have a big meeting every year as the horse races get started. Yes, the horses start racing in February. It’s hard to believe. In fact, two different years I’ve been there, I’ve gotten into bad weather. For some who have read this for awhile, I’m sure you remember. Regardless, it’s a great meeting they put on, and I’m looking forward to it. What I’m really looking forward to is seeing some of you next week at Commodity Classic. With my better half and two youngest kids in tow, it will be a new experience for me having them able to see what I do when out and about. Seeing it at a place like Commodity will be pretty neat I would think. If you’re going, let us know…let’s make connections. matt@agmarket.net
The corn and bean markets went in different directions on Wednesday towards the close. Beans closed higher but saw both sides of unchanged during trade. Corn seemed intent on giving back at least some of Tuesday’s gains, but didn’t have a bad close by any means. With the weather in Brazil staying a bit wet, we could see some support for both corn and beans…although most expect it to dry up in the week to ten-day forecast. With the situation in China seeming to improve a bit, with them indicating they’re about to make some purchases, it’s possible the market might be done selling for the time being. The outlook forum numbers will be in over the next couple of days, so the trade will be watching intently to see how the USDA sees production and demand shaping up. The outside markets were mixed…the Dow was up, still lingering just under 29,500 while the Dollar was also strong, pushing up on 100 on the index. Crude oil completed the trifecta with nice gains on the day. March crude was up $1.22 at $53.27. The close was 22 cents off the high and $1.34 off the low.
Corn – The corn market had a great day to start the week then gave back some of the gains on Wednesday. March corn settled 2 ½ cents lower at $3.80 ½. This was 2 ¼ cents off the high and 2 off the low. There was no EIA report from the Department of Energy given the holiday-shortened trading week…it will come out today. On Tuesday, the weekly export inspections for corn was a shade better than the previous week with 795 mt of corn getting shipped. Corn demand certainly needs to pick up speed, especially when it comes to exports. With whispers China could be looking at buying wheat from the US, feedgrains could be supported. Hopefully we’ll get them interested in buying some corn as well. Old-crop and new-crop as well both look hard to rally…I hope we see a rally unfold, but at this point, it could be hard to muster. IF we see a weather situation unfold for the safrinha crop in Brazil, there’s no doubt we’d see life for corn…barring that or a big pick-up in export demand, we’re likely to stay flat.
Soybeans – Soybeans were showing some life on Wednesday, especially towards the close. March beans settled a nickel higher at $8.97 ¼. The close was just a penny off the high and 12 ¼ cents off the low in a bigger trading range than we’ve been seeing. This bean market is taking advantage of talk the Chinese are about to start buying some beans, as per the Phase I trade deal. Also lending support is the wetter weather during Brazil’s first-crop soybean harvest. Will we see the rally continue? That’s a great question, but as a producer we need to be looking more at whether we can make some money now that the markets have seen another nice little rally. I struggle to get bullish beans with the big crop in South America…but at the same time, beans have rallied many a time when I least expected it. Staying flexible and marketing when profitable must be a bit part of your marketing plan…in my opinion anyway.
Call us if you want to talk positions or strategy. If you want more information on the markets, be sure to visit my team’s website at https://www.agmarket.net/
Matt Bennett
217-273-1133 – Work
@chief321 – Twitter
matt@bennettconsulting.net – E-mail
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