Grains are mixed:
Corn + 7 3/4 cents/bu (Mar @ 5.25)
Soybeans -7 1/2 cents/bu (Mar @ 14.10 3/4)
Chi Wheat -4 ¼ cents/bu (Mar @ 6.60 3/4)
Cdn $ +0.00025 (78.64 cents)
WTI Crude Oil -0.44/barrel (52.77)
Although grains had a good start to the day, they are now starting to settle down from the excitement yesterday, resulting in mixed markets.
The was a flash sale announcement this morning of 464,000 tonnes (17.1 million bushels) of U.S. soybeans to unknown destinations. 68,000 tonnes is for 2021/22 delivery, and the rest is for 2020/21 delivery. Unfortunately, this was not enough to keep soybeans on the positive side of unchanged today.
Wheat lower despite Russia’s ag ministry has proposing an increase in the wheat export tax from 25 euros per tonne to 45 euros per tonne on March 15th. They also proposed an export tax on corn and barley. This would make Russian commodities more expensive, and encourage more US buying.
The weekly EIA report was released this morning for the week ending January 8th, and shows that petroleum stocks of fuel ethanol grew 0.4 million barrels to 23.7 million barrels. This is an 8-month high and is 23.0 million barrels higher than last year. Ethanol production also grew 6 thousand barrels per day to 941 thousand barrels per day, although that number is still down from 1,095 thousand barrels in the previous year. It is estimated that ethanol used 97.0 million bushels of corn during the week, compared to 96.4 million in the previous week, and 109.2 million in the previous year. Marketing year corn use for ethanol to date is estimated at 1.818 billion bushels which is 5.8% down from last year’s pacem but still 30 million bushels above the seasonal pace needed to reach the USDA’s target. This is a good overall report for corn, resulting in the support we see in the corn market.
Currently, the House of Representatives is preparing to impeach President Trump, despite this, the stock market is currently performing strong.
Floyd and I would like to remind everyone of Wanstead’s upcoming virtual AGM on Thursday, January 21st at 10am. Your annual statements as well as our website has instructions for members to register. At the top of our website is a Register button members can simply press to send an e-mail to us, or you can use the address: agm-registration@wansteadfarmerscoop.com. We require your name, customer ID, e-mail address and address upon registrations so that you can receive a personalized login.