Highlights
Officials in Beijing increased public covid checks and locked-down some residential apartment complexes after the covid case load increased fourfold in recent days. The word “lockdown” scared the crude oil bulls yesterday, but crude held in there with a nice comeback of $1.56 to settle down only 67 cents. We highly recommend no long crude oil or petroleum product positions because of China’s battle with covid.
Starting Jan 5th, the US will require negative covid tests for Chinese visitors.
Instead of restricting palm oil exports, Indonesia will delay from 1 Jan to 1 Feb the switch from B30 (30% biodiesel) to B35 blend. India has extended its duty free import of palm oil indefinitely.
Brazil exempted US ethanol from import tax (tariff) through March 2023. That will help corn prices more than you think it would. It also highlights how short Brazil is on their own corn supplies, which is the commodity with which they make a high percentage of their ethanol.