Wars on Chinese Consumers, EU Farmers, and Foreign Investors; Japanese Challenge
War on Chinese Consumers China’s National Grain & Oil Information Centre (CNGOIC) is honest and forthright as it reported this week that soymeal prices have surged on fears of an escalating U.S.-China trade war. The graphs below document the rise in soybean and soymeal prices. The res...
Summer Weather?
Everyone wants to know what the U.S. growing season will be like in 2018. Analysts with a bearish bent are projecting record corn and soybean yields before the crops have been planted. Those with a bullish bent are saying severe weather and yield problems aren’t needed to reduce ending su...
Market Commentary
Markets were lower overnight, and that trend continued into the day session. One word that described today’s market action was weather, which is looking much better across the U.S. than a week ago. It will be warmer and drier, and that means farmers will get the planters rolling. A later...
Summary of Futures
Ag, energy, and soft commodity futures’ technical patterns, including momentum and long-term indicators, are examined. Changes in the forward curve for grain futures have important implications while livestock momentum indicators provide directional insights. ...
Closing Futures Prices
WPI provides a summary of the week’s futures price activity and the gains/losses experienced by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today’s data from the CFTC points to changing views among managed money funds. Meanwhile, commercial traders’ positions are evol...
Cattle on Feed
Cattle on Feed in U.S. feedlots of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on April 1, 2018. The inventory was 7 percent above April 1, 2017 – and that is the second highest April 1 inventory since the series began in 1996. Placements in feedlots during March totaled 1.92 million hea...
Ag Implications of Legalizing Marijuana
Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a memo in January (see Ag Perspectives, 5 January) rescinding the so-called Cole memo, issued by Obama administration Deputy Attorney General James Cole in 2013, and four other Obama-era directives dating back to 2009 that set guidelines of noninterferenc...
Pig in an R&D Poke; Regenerative Economics; Language Squeeze
Pig in an R&D Poke Various coalitions of U.S. agricultural research universities are lamenting that the House Agriculture Committee-approved farm bill failed to include increases in federal subsidies for their research. It is natural for these largely academic institutions to seek greater s...
Market Commentary
In terms of market-moving news, the last several days have been something of a desert. The unlikelihood that the forecast weekend rains will provide much relief for the Plains and NOAA’s outlook that dryness will continue into May are supporting KC HRW futures but little else. This was th...
Cattle on Feed; Farm Bill Update
Cattle on Feed Tomorrow USDA will release its monthly Cattle on Feed report. The industry’s pre-report estimates peg the total number on feed as of 1 April to be 107.6 percent of last year with March placements and marketings at 91 percent and 96 percent ,respectively, of the totals...
More Tales from Export Sales
Insofar as cash and futures markets for grain and the soy complex are concerned, the impacts of U.S. trade policy issues are ultimately measured by the volumes of export sales and shipments. The fact that such issues currently involve China, Mexico and Canada ensures that whatever happens in th...
Summary of Futures
Changes in Commodity Analytics’ short-term technical indicators for grain futures should be carefully examined against long-term signals. Elsewhere, livestock futures (live cattle, feeder cattle, and lean hogs) are showing technical signals that may influence how traders should manage the...
Wars on Chinese Consumers, EU Farmers, and Foreign Investors; Japanese Challenge
War on Chinese Consumers China’s National Grain & Oil Information Centre (CNGOIC) is honest and forthright as it reported this week that soymeal prices have surged on fears of an escalating U.S.-China trade war. The graphs below document the rise in soybean and soymeal prices. The res...
Summer Weather?
Everyone wants to know what the U.S. growing season will be like in 2018. Analysts with a bearish bent are projecting record corn and soybean yields before the crops have been planted. Those with a bullish bent are saying severe weather and yield problems aren’t needed to reduce ending su...
Market Commentary
Markets were lower overnight, and that trend continued into the day session. One word that described today’s market action was weather, which is looking much better across the U.S. than a week ago. It will be warmer and drier, and that means farmers will get the planters rolling. A later...
Summary of Futures
Ag, energy, and soft commodity futures’ technical patterns, including momentum and long-term indicators, are examined. Changes in the forward curve for grain futures have important implications while livestock momentum indicators provide directional insights. ...
Closing Futures Prices
WPI provides a summary of the week’s futures price activity and the gains/losses experienced by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today’s data from the CFTC points to changing views among managed money funds. Meanwhile, commercial traders’ positions are evol...
Cattle on Feed
Cattle on Feed in U.S. feedlots of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on April 1, 2018. The inventory was 7 percent above April 1, 2017 – and that is the second highest April 1 inventory since the series began in 1996. Placements in feedlots during March totaled 1.92 million hea...
Ag Implications of Legalizing Marijuana
Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a memo in January (see Ag Perspectives, 5 January) rescinding the so-called Cole memo, issued by Obama administration Deputy Attorney General James Cole in 2013, and four other Obama-era directives dating back to 2009 that set guidelines of noninterferenc...
Pig in an R&D Poke; Regenerative Economics; Language Squeeze
Pig in an R&D Poke Various coalitions of U.S. agricultural research universities are lamenting that the House Agriculture Committee-approved farm bill failed to include increases in federal subsidies for their research. It is natural for these largely academic institutions to seek greater s...
Market Commentary
In terms of market-moving news, the last several days have been something of a desert. The unlikelihood that the forecast weekend rains will provide much relief for the Plains and NOAA’s outlook that dryness will continue into May are supporting KC HRW futures but little else. This was th...
Cattle on Feed; Farm Bill Update
Cattle on Feed Tomorrow USDA will release its monthly Cattle on Feed report. The industry’s pre-report estimates peg the total number on feed as of 1 April to be 107.6 percent of last year with March placements and marketings at 91 percent and 96 percent ,respectively, of the totals...
More Tales from Export Sales
Insofar as cash and futures markets for grain and the soy complex are concerned, the impacts of U.S. trade policy issues are ultimately measured by the volumes of export sales and shipments. The fact that such issues currently involve China, Mexico and Canada ensures that whatever happens in th...
Summary of Futures
Changes in Commodity Analytics’ short-term technical indicators for grain futures should be carefully examined against long-term signals. Elsewhere, livestock futures (live cattle, feeder cattle, and lean hogs) are showing technical signals that may influence how traders should manage the...