Grains mostly unchanged in the overnight session with Dec Corn up ¼ of a cent, Nov Soybeans down 1 cent and Dec Wheat down ½ cent. Chicago Corn and Soybean futures in 2017 have been confined to the smallest ranges during the US growing season in over a decade as the world continues to bang out bumper crops with minimal interruption.
Exporters sell 195,000 metric tons of Corn for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2017/2018 marketing year. -USDA
Rains from tropical Storm Nate farther east Sunday/Monday, slow cotton/soy harvest in mainly the E Delta/Tennessee Valley. Periodic rain events throughout next 2 weeks keep Central Midwest corn/soy harvest slow at times; damage risk is low. Plains showers are more limited after today; threatening only minor wheat seeding delays through mid-October.
French farmers had harvested 15 percent of this year’s grain maize crop by October 2, up from 5 percent a week earlier. The harvest was running ahead of the pace seen last year when 9 percent of the crop had been gathered by the same date said France AgriMer in the weekly update.
The Dollar rose to its strongest in 10 weeks on Friday and short-dated US Treasury yields climbed to a nine-year high after data showing the largest gain in US wages since December 2016 bolstered bets on an interest rate hike by year-end. US two-year yields hit their highest since October 2008 at 1.52 percent as US bonds led a sell-off in world bond markets. The dollar index (which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies) climbed to 94.267, its highest since late July.
Oil and natural gas operators began evacuating staff and halting production at US Gulf of Mexico platforms on Thursday ahead of Tropical Storm Nate, the second storm in as many months to rattle the Gulf Coast energy corridor. Nate, which has killed at least 10 people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and caused intense rainfall, is forecast to scrape Honduras and Mexico, enter the Gulf and strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall this weekend in Louisiana, near several major refineries.
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