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: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
