Today’s USDA planting intentions and quarterly stocks reports landed a tough one-two punch to the corn market. The former indicated that farmers intend to plant about 1.6 million acres more corn than the average trade guess, which would be an increase of 2.7 million acres from 2018 but 2 million acres or so smaller than what the trade was expecting just a few months ago. The corn quarterly stocks estimate was more bearish, though, at 270 million bushels (6.9 MMT) above the trade estimate. That’s the third or fourth biggest miss in terms of actual versus guesses in more than 30 years. It was the smallest quarterly feed usage number since 2011. The most negative numbers in today’s reports clearly belonged to corn.
The soy...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
