Small moves in futures and currency; Wednesday’s settlements as follows.
- Chicago wheat down 1.5 cents per bushel to 458c;
- Kansas wheat down 1.25c to 426.25c;
- MATIF wheat down €0.75 per tonne to €188.50;
- Minneapolis wheat up 7.25c to 530.25c;
- Corn up 1.75c to 361.75c;
- Soybeans up 3.25c to 902c;
- Winnipeg canola up C$0.70/t to $456
- MATIF rapeseed up €1.75 to €360.75
- WTI crude oil up US$0.63 per barrel to $64.61;
- Dow Jones down 190.44 points to 26,150.58;
- AUD up to 0.7170c,
- EUR unchanged at $1.126;
- CAD down to $1.332.
Market news
Quiet days continued on Chicago overnight, with wheat -1.5¢ to 458, KC -1 1/4¢ to 426.25, and Matif off 3/4€ to 188.5 on the earlier close. Minny finally bounced a hair after the sell off – up 7 1/4¢ to 530.25. Corn picked up 1 3/4¢ to 361 3/4, and beans up 3 1/4 to 902¢. Matif rapeseed picked up 1 3/4€ to 360 3/4, and Winnipeg gained another 70¢ to $456. Crude has continued to rally, with WTI up 60¢ to $64.6 and Brent up a buck ten to $71.7 while the DOW is trading unchanged. The USD has weakened agains the global basket, with the AUD up to 71.7¢, the CAD to $1.332, and the EUR up to $1.127. No word yet on results from the EU/Brexit meeting – but the most commonly held opinion seems to be that there will be some extension agreed upon.
Swine fever cancels pork expo
Quiet news on the global front – The USDA flashed two panamaxes of bean sales to unknown destinations. Many are thinking China, but there’s been nothing to confirm this as of yet (and trade war meetings are still ongoing). African swine fever is back in the news – this time in (South) Africa. The US’ “World Pork Expo” was also cancelled today (scheduled for June) amid concerns that attendees might accidentally bring ASF with them.
Weather mixed
The much reported US blizzard has started to hit – and snow is expected to keep falling into parts of Minnesota and eastern South Dakota until early Friday local time. Markets are still sorting out opinions as to prevent-plant, but many are remembering just how fast the farmer can plant corn. Of course they need to be able to get into the field to do that, and some of the bottomlands are still fully saturated (before this storm). A number of locks are still closed on the rivers too – no word on when they will open after this rain.
Meanwhile, there are more rains on the radar for southern Russia later this week (to their benefit), even as additional concerns over dry conditions have been raised by some in France. Back locally, the extended forecast models are pushing in a bit of rain for central and southern NSW into later next week – but we’re still cautious there given the variability in such forecasts. Still nothing on the maps to bring relief to SA though.
Source: Lachstock Consulting
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