Grains are mixed to close:
Sep Corn -9 3/4 cents/bu (5.92)
Dec Corn -9 1/4 cents/bu (5.79 3/4)
Nov Soybeans + 3 1/2 cents/bu (13.99)
Sept Chi Wheat -12 3/4 cents/bu (6.52 3/4)
Currently:
Cdn $ +0.00780 (81.135 cents)
WTI Crude Oil +0.07/barrel (75.30)
Markets are fairly quiet today as we coast into the American long weekend. Over the week, futures markets gained 58 1/4 cents on December 2021 corn, 120 3/4 cents on November 2021 soybeans and 7 1/4 cents on July 2021 wheat from market open on Monday.
Now that the excitement from Wednesday’s report has started to wear off, we are swung back into a weather market. With the results of Wednesday's report showing net lower acreage numbers than expected, the U.S. has even less room to handle production losses. The grain markets will closed tonight, and will not be reopening until 9:30am on Tuesday due to the July 4th Holiday. There are a lot of weather changes, or model adjustments that could happen in the next 3 days, which may lead to volatility on Tuesday. Wanstead will have regular operating hours on Monday despite the American holiday. If any growers are considering harvesting this weekend, please feel free to reach out to Floyd or your agronomist on their cells.
Midwest rains yesterday were limited to a band stretching from southern Kansas through southern Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Commodity Weather Group maps show a 6 to 10 day forecast that is wetter for the northern Midwest and Canadian Prairies, and slightly drier for the central Plains and southern Midwest. Drought conditions were shown to have subsided yesterday for corn and soybeans (as shown in the drought monitor), but increased for spring wheat bringing it to 90% of the total crop area experiencing drought. Our weather forecast is looking slightly wet next week which may put a hiccup in harvest plans for some of the local crop ready to come off.
Internationally:
Reuters announced this morning that Ukraine is set to see their 2021 grain crop rise 17% to record a 75.8 million tonnes due to favourable weather.
Southern parts of Brazil saw multiple nights of freezing temperatures this week, which added some support to futures at the beginning of the week.
Yesterday, officials failed to reach an agreement on easing oil output quotas. Members from OPEC, Russia and their allies plan to meet again today for further discussions.
USDA's Beijing attache increased China's 2021/22 corn imports to 20 mmt from the previous forecast of 15 mmt, but that remains below USDA's official view of 26 mmt. Recent imports, increased production and rising import/shipping costs are factors. They also increased China's soy imports to 102 mmt from 100 mmt, also still below USDA's official 103 mmt. The attache sees farmers switching from soybeans to corn due to high corn prices and better subsidies.
Funds were thought to be mixed today with corn expected to have sold 12,000 contracts (long 255,000), soybeans to have bought 35,000 contracts (long 132,000), and wheat to have sold 9,800 contracts (short 6,000). On Tuesday, funds were pretty close to expectations with corn being only 1,000 contracts shorter, soybeans 4,000 contracts longer, and wheat 10,000 contracts shorter.