On Wall St., yesterday the Dow overcame morninog losses, gaining 98 points on the closing to reach at 33,171.
Really, investors in this moment, are very watchful to possible volatility that could there will be later, during this week, as the markets being closed on Friday and all are awaiting a possible infrastructure announcement from President Biden.
Meantime, the Ever Given has refloated and the Suez Canal is now unblocked.
About 12pc of global trade goes through the 190-kilometre Suez Canal and so german insurer Allianz has predicted that the cost to global trade for this block will be around US$6-$10 billion per week.
According to S&P Global Platts, at the peak of the event,estimated 320 ships were waiting, impacting 26 million barrels of crude oil.
Consequently, energy prices only saw light to moderate gains, with crude oil up nearly 1%.
Diesel saw small gains of 0.1%, while gasoline jumped more than 1.25%.
On the grains market, traders continue to consider the potential of Brazilian crops and the possibility for historically large acres in the United States for this season.
The expectations on sowing intentions are displayed around 93 million acres in corn and 90 million in soybeans.
So, these large areas motivated operators to take profits on long positions, with the consequence of a drop in corn and soybean prices.
In fact, corn and soybean prices lower yesterday respectivily, 1% and 0,75%.
The recent climatic improvements in South America have also allowed a sharp acceleration of the second wave of Brazilian plantings, now 98% complete.
According to AgRural, the soybean harvest in Brazil was 71% completed last Thursday, compared to 76% last year.
US corn export inspections was a week-over-week decline of around 16%.
Soybean export inspections slid 14% lower week-over-week.
Soybean export inspections, indeed, standed this week at 425,364 t and corn at 1,695,215 t.
Wheat, was totally disappointing with export figures at 302,188 t.
The Kansas weekly crop progress reports indicated conditions were improving, with 50 per cent of the wheat crop rated as good to excellent, up from 45pc last week.
In this context, wheat prices were narrowly mixed, after printed fresh lows overnight, while winter wheat contracts carved out modest gains, only after uncovered some buying ahead of Wednesdays USDA reports.
Spring wheat contracts, on the contrary, spilled moderately lower.
On the Black Sea market, Russian wheat FOB prices fell sharply last week.
Russian cash market, indeed, posted its fourth consecutive week of lower prints.
Depending on what part of the calendar is looked at, Russian cash values are now more than USD$20/t off the highs mainly due to a better new-crop prospects and some indications that demand is shrinking.
Russia could export an estimated 138.2 million bushels in March, according to the SovEcon consultancy.
That is moderately above February’s tally but otherwise the lowest monthly total since last July, if realized.
Russia primarily exports wheat but also sells a moderate amount of corn each month.
Consultancy SovEcon estimates the country’s March corn exports will reach 12.4 million bushels.
On the european market, there was a new sharp decline in wheat prices, mainly in the 2020 harvest, in the wake of prices in the Black Sea basin which are falling sharply.
Corn also remains trending downward in the wake of wheat.
While rapeseed prices are still showing as much volatility, with a new rebound yesterday in the wake of palm and canola.
Really, the lack of activity on the international scene dominates the EU grains news.
European Union soft wheat exports for the 2020/21 marketing year, indeed, still trending lower year-over-year.
EU barley exports are also slightly below last year’s pace so far.
On March 28, the EU exported only 19.79 million tonnes of common wheat against 25.62 million last year to date.
Barley exports standed at 5.72 million tonnes against 5.87 last year.
About imports, European Union corn imports during the 2020/21 marketing year have a trending 27% below last year’s pace so far.
Also soymeal imports down slightly year-over-year.
While EU canola imports are fractionally above last year’s tally. .
Corn and canola imports, indeed, were respectively 11.65 and 4.94 million tonnes, compared to last year at 15.95 and 4.93 million tonnes.
European Union soybean imports for the 2020/21 marketing year are trending slightly higher than last year’s pace so far.
In this context, Algeria are taking advantage of this decline to launch a new tender for loading in May.
Competition in this destination will be fierce of course.
Also Aussie current-crop markets drifted lower across the boards, as we saw values lower another A$2-3/t.
There is currently a lack of liquidity due to growers focusing on planting, and this should continue for the next two months.
For the eleventh time this year, China has auctioned off a large amount of its domestic grain stocks, but only 25.8% of the total available for sale was purchased.
China, this year, has consistently released its state reserves of grain in the local market in an attempt to lower feed costs after corn prices have risen in recent months.
