Grains posted modest gains overnight while S&P futures and crude oil were mostly unchanged. The US dollar was off after posting its highest level in over a month on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Egypt’s GASC bought 180,000 MT of wheat from Romania and Ukraine, but overnight Canada announced they had a load of wheat rejected by Egypt because of ergot. The world’s largest wheat buyer continues to impose barriers in its wheat deals which further limits participation by many countries.
Also on Wednesday, private analyst Informa increased their projections for the Brazil soybean crop to 101.3 MT from a previous estimate of 100.5 MMT, while they pegged the Argentina corn crop at 27 MMT versus a previous forecast of 26. FC Stone also came out with projections, showing Brazil beans at 98.6 MMT versus a previous estimate of 98, while they put the Brazil corn crop at 84.2 MMT as compared to their past forecast of 81.0 MMT
A delay in the onset of the La Nina weather pattern this year is likely to buoy crops across key growing regions in the United States, Australia and India, a leading weather forecaster said on Thursday. Another year of bumper production of crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans would boost global inventories that have risen near record levels following successive large harvests. Some models were showing La Nina developing by July but they have delayed that by a month or two now said Kyle Tapley, senior agricultural meteorologist at U.S.-based MDA Weather Services.
Actual Expected
Corn 1,097.6 700-1,100
Soybeans 442.2 200-600
Wheat 410.6 200-450
Crude oil got more bearish news on Wednesday as inventories jumped 10 million barrels on the week versus trade expectations of only a 2 million barrel increase. Nonetheless, the oil market shrugged off the news to close higher on Wednesday focusing on the low US rig count that traders expect to eventually curtail production.
The risk of trading futures, hedging, and speculating can be substantial. Grain Hedge is a dba of Foremost Trading LLC (NFA ID: 0307930)
