Grains closed mixed on Friday:
Dec Corn – 2 ½ cents/bu (5.26 ¾ )
Nov Soybeans + ¾ cent/bu (12.85)
Dec Chi Wheat + 6 cents/bu (7.23 ¾ )
Cdn $ -0.00075 (78.97 cents)
WTI Crude Oil +0.68/barrel (73.98)
Friday was a very quiet day in terms of any grain news. Corn futures spent most of the trading session in slightly negative territory. USA corn harvest marches onward with anecdotal yields reports being generally in line or better than USDA forecasts. Overall US corn carryout forecasts are not overly bearish, but today, USA export corn offers are more expensive than Ukrainian, Argentinian, and Brazilian offers (in that order). Rapidly declining processor corn basis bids in the US Midwest due to harvest pressure also was not friendly to corn futures today.
Soybeans like corn suffered from harvest reports of yields being slightly better than expected. Beans traded both sides of unchanged as commercial buyers appeared ready to buy any dips in the market, given the fact that bean carryouts remain tight. Rumors circulated today that China cut off power supply to a number of domestic crush facilities, due to carbon emission concerns, although the plants involved appear to be relatively small in the grand scheme of things, and are unlikely to result in any major swing to importing US soyoil/meal.
Wheat was strong all day on technical strength and rumors of Chinese buying of both French and Australian wheat Russian wheat values increased slightly today, but US wheat prices are currently at a significant premium to Russian values.
From an equity perspective, the market started the day softer amid concerns over China’s Evergrande Group missing an US dollar denominated interest payment last night of $83.5 million dollars. But over the course of trading Friday, the market took a wait and see attitude on the whole scenario, as the Chinese government again pumped billions of dollars of stimulus into the market again today. That allowed US equity indexes to end the session slightly better on the day.
The CFTC Weekly report on fund positions in commodities showed funds longer in corn than expected by 9,000 contracts, less long soybeans than expected by 3,000 contracts, and less short Chicago wheat than expected by 10,000 contracts. On the day Friday, funds were thought to have been sellers of 2,000 corn contracts (now long an estimated 213,000 futures), while being buyers of 1,000 soybean contracts (now long 54,000 futures), and buyers of 5,000 Chicago wheat contracts (now long 18,000 futures)