BASIC & RECENT MARKET INFO

Tidbits The meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping lasted approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes. At the start of the talks, Trump stated that Beijing and Washington had already reached agreement on many issues and would continue this work during the summit. Following the talks, Trump headed straight to his special plane without making a joint statement. Trump’s comments on board Air Force One were the first we got on how these talks progressed. There has been no official statemen

Tidbits Yesterday, November bean futures were up 4¢, January beans were up 1½, March beans were down ¼, and May beans were down ¾¢. Corn and wheat had similar action, but not as pronounced. Meaning the spread is going up and that is bullish market action. With November soybean deliveries beginning 8 days, it looks like the big grain companies want soybean deliveries. The FSA  reportedly will reopen offices today to process ARC/PLC payments, farm loans, and disaster programs.

Tidbits

Tidbits A bear spread is when a trader sells the nearby futures contract and buys the deferred futures contract.   A bull spread is when a trader buys the nearby futures contract and sells the deferred futures contract.   When there is plenty of old crop and no chance of a shortage of old crop, the old crop futures price will be below the new crop price. Why? The new crop is not made yet and it is at a higher price because of the weather risk. The old crop corn is in the bin.

Highlights The U.S. Gulf Coast is bracing for the tropical storm Francine. It is expected to become a category 2 hurricane and make landfall in Louisiana this evening according to the National Hurricane Center. Crude oil, natural gas facilities, and barge loading/unloading operations have been scaling back and evacuating some sites.   Francine's track is expected to move up the Mississippi River into Southern Illinois. As it heads north, the winds will slow down to mid-40 mph

Futures & Spreads May beans low yesterday was lower than Thursday’s low and yesterday’s May beans settlement price was higher than the high made on Thursday. The Tech Guy pointed that out to us. Technicians call that a “key reversal” of a down trending market. Many of you have May basis contracts which need to be rolled or cashed out no later than the close of the CBOT on Monday, April 29th. Many merchandisers will require you to roll or cash out sooner than the 29th, so chec

Tidbits A Farm Futures survey of 825 growers resulted in them predicting US farmers will plant: 92.798 million acres of corn, 94.6 mil in 2023 84.953 million acres of soybeans, 83.6 mil. in 2023 47.994 million acres of wheat, 49.6 mil in 2023   Dr. Cordonnier left unchanged his corn production estimate for Brazil at 115 mil mts. He also kept his Argentine corn estimate steady at 56 mil mts, with 23% of the crop pollinating; 46% rated good or excellent.   The good doctor left

Tidbits Yemen’s Houthis plan to close all three of the Middle East's major waterways: Bab Al-Mandab, Strait of Hormuz, and the Suez Canal to stop oil and gas feeding Israel from Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.   Aprosoja, Brazil’s Association of Soybean Growers, is rumored to announce this week that Brazil’s soybean crop will be 135 mil mts or less and the safrinha corn plantings will be less than 50% of a year ago. They very well may be correct on safrinha acreage, but weat

Tidbits On Friday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 297,000 mts of old crop soybeans to China. The only reason China is buying old crop US soybeans during Brazil’s bean harvest is because they know Brazil is not going to have enough beans to meet China’s usual demand this marketing year.     On Friday, the S&P 500 stock index made a record high for the first time in two years.   Eduardo Lima Porto is the founder of LucrodoAgro Consultoria Agroeconomica which is dedicate