US farm markets run higher yesterday, as investors are waching for next week dry weather forecasts.
In fact Sept. corn futures finished 17¼¢ higher at $5.68¼.
New-crop Dec. futures ended 18¢ higher at $5.58½.
March corn futures closed 17¾¢ higher at $5.66½.
August soybean futures settled 38¼¢ higher at $14.53½.
Sept. soybean futures closed 34¾¢ higher at $13.94. New-crop November soybean futures finished 31½¢ higher at $13.83¼.
Sept. wheat futures closed 20¾¢ higher at $6.54¾.
Aug. soymeal futures settled $12.20 per short ton higher at $368.70.
Aug. soy oil futures closed 0.68¢ higher at 66.22¢ per pound.
On macro markets, oil prices continued to fell nearly 1% this morning, extending yesterday’s losses as investors braced for more supplies following a compromise between top OPEC producers and as U.S. fuel stocks rose, raising concerns about demand in the world’s largest consumer.
So, Brent crude futures for September dropped 59 cents, or 0.8%, to $74.17 a barrel by 04.09 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for August was at $72.51 a barrel, down 62 cents, or 0.9%.
Both benchmarks slid more than 2% yesterday after Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia and the UAE reached a compromise that should pave the way for a deal to supply more crude.
Meantime, in the United States, crude stockpiles fell for an eighth straight week last week, but gasoline and diesel inventories rose despite a drop in refinery utilization rates, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday.
However, this large drawdown in crude stocks did little to boost oil prices as traders focused on the first rise in total petroleum stocks since early June.
On the financial side, Asian shares held firm this morning after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy was “still a ways off” from levels the central bank wanted to see before tapering its monetary support.
A raft of Chinese economic data due later in the day, will be a major focus in Asia as will earnings from major companies, including Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.4%.
Wall Street shares were mixed yesterday, with S&P reached record levels ending 0.12% higher, the Dow Jones was 0,13% higer and Nasdaq down 0.22%.
The U.S. Dollar softened moderately and the USD index hited 92.4.
Coming back on grains market, weather maps continue to bring nice rains to end the week for the central/eastern Corn Belt – a solid 1-2″ for most.
Extended maps have continued to slide drier though, raising a few concerns.
In fact, mild temperatures are forecast for most.
Spring wheat weather remains disastrous.
There’s no relief in either moisture or temperature across nearly the entire northern Plains / Canadian Prairies and crops continue to bake.
Weekly US ethanol production dropped to 1.041 bpd, with stocks nominally lower to 21.1 million.
Meantime, legislation has been introduced by a bipartisan group of senators yesterday that could boost ethanol demand by allowing year-round sales of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol (i.e. E15).
In this context, corn basis bids were mostly steady to firm across the central U.S. after moving 4 to 9 cents higher at four Midwestern locations.
A Nebraska processor bucked the overall trend after falling 5 cents.
Soybean basis bids were mostly steady but showed some significant variability at two Midwestern processors – jumping 25 cents higher at one Illinois location while spilling 10 cents lower at an Indiana facility.
On European market, the day was marked by a sharp rebound in grain prices on the wake of US farm markets.
Wheat prices also find support in the qualitative criteria which report a 76/15/4/2/2 with 76 mini ps, 11 minimum protein and 220 mini hagberg.
Rapeseed, meantime, fell back yesterday on Euronext on profit taking after its recent increases, in the wake of Canadian canola even if in Canada the situation remains critical from a climatic point of view and the market should quickly regain support.
In France, the long-awaited return of the high pressure should take place by the end of the week, which should allow harvesting sites to resume from the start of next week.
In Germany, the association of cooperatives shows an all-wheat harvest estimate of 22.80 million tonnes, up + 3.2% compared to last year, but down compared to the 22.98 million estimated last month.
Rapeseed production is expected at 3.68 million tonnes, up + 4.7% compared to last year.
On the political hand, the EU’s going to be targeting further increases in renewable energy in the coming decades, as per plans announced by the European Commission, but there are few concrete changes to actions in their proposals.
From Black Sea basin, Black Sea weather maps remain great for harvest there – warm and dry through the end of the month.
Ukraine has exported 700,000 tonnes of grain so far in the 2021/22 July-June season, almost the same volume as it sold abroad in the same period in 2020/21, agriculture ministry data showed on Wednesday.
The exported volume included 223,000 tonnes of wheat, 95,000 tonnes of barley and 373,000 tonnes of corn, the data showed.
The barley and wheat are likely from the new 2021 harvest.
Ukraine, plans to thresh around 76 million tonnes of grain in 2021.
From the Middle Kingdom, China’s National Statistics Bureau reported yesterday that the country’s wheat output rose 2% year-over-year to 4.924 billion bushels.
Even so, China’s wheat import needs for 2020/21 could reach the highest levels in more than two decades.
From Australia, old crop Australian yesterday was subdued, though new crop liquidity was up slightly. Canola continued to track the global boards.
WA weather maps are shifting sharply wetter again into next week, with the latest storm system now forecast to bring another inch across almost all the wheat belt there.
Internationally, Egypt’s GASC tender bought three boats for a total of 180,000 t of Romanian wheat booked at a ~US$262-267/t candf, with an average FOB price of 232 usd / t /.
The first boat was some $5/t cheaper on lighter freight.
There were plenty more cheap Romanian offers right above this level, along with a chunk of Ukrainian grain.
Russian offers were several bucks higher.
Note that the freight continues to increase, contracted yesterday at 30 USD / t between Constanta and the port of destination.
On July 15, Xi’an, Shaanxi, will auction about 20,000 tons of aged wheat.
Additionally will auction 14,186 tons of domestic vegetable oil (rotation by purchase and sales rotation) and 17,886 tons of imported vegetable oil.
We wish you all a good day.
