Good afternoon, Corn managed to finish the day higher after trading both sides of unchanged today. Commodity funds were buyers of an estimated 3500 corn contracts as of noon. The weekly ethanol production report and sharply higher wheat market provided support. The Russian economic woes are leading to concern of sharp food price rises. The Russian government said today that it would limit exports of wheat (and likely corn also) in an attempt to combat domestic grain price rises. This sparked another rally in wheat futures and also helped to nudge corn slightly higher. The ethanol production numbers released today were also supportive as production for the week ended December 12th was a record 6.93 million barrels. An estimated 104.0 million bu. of corn was used which is 4.9 million bu. more than needed/week to reach the 2014/15 projection for corn used in ethanol production (5.150 billion bu.). Stocks of ethanol showed a small decline from the previous week. Ethanol margins remain positive, but have declined each of the past three weeks. Tomorrow’s export sales report is expected to include corn sales near 27.5 million bu. Soybeans closed modestly higher today with SF up 3 ½ cents and SH gaining 4 cents. Commodity funds were buyers of an estimated 1500 soybean contracts during the morning hours. A midday bounce in crude oil prices helped to push soybeans back into the black after beans traded in lower territory much of the morning. This offset the negative influences from favorable South American weather and slowing export demand. Beneficial rainfall fell overnight on Paraguay and Southern Brazil and more rains are forecast for these areas over the upcoming weekend. Overall, South American growing conditions look good as we enter the critical crop development period which will extend into early February. Traders expect soybean sales near 24.0 million bu. in tomorrow’s export sales report.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:33:22 +0000
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