Brownfield’s Weekly Commodity update featuring former OSU Extension Ag Economist Ben Brown.
This weeks topics include:
- Market recap
- Harvest market outlook
- Hot, dry weather impacting soybeans
- Wishlist for new marketing year
- Reports to watch
Market recap (changes on week as of Monday’s close):
– December 2023 corn down $.15 at $4.81
– November soybeans down $.42 at $13.63
– October soybean oil down 1.00 cent at 63.97 cents/lb
– October soybean meal up $.50 at $400.20/short ton
– December 2023 wheat down $.19 at $5.98
– July 2024 wheat down $.19 at $6.49
– September WTI Crude Oil up $4.04 at $83.74/barrel
Weekly Highlights:
– US crude oil stocks were down again last week continuing a trend over the last month. The hurricanes hitting the US southeast have cause some temporary shutdowns that are expected to tighten domestic stocks again next week.
– Ethanol production pulled back to 296 million gallons on the week- the lowest level in just over 3 ½ months. The reduction in ethanol production and higher gasoline use decreased ethanol stocks another 50 million gallons providing support to ethanol prices.
– Ag export sales were mixed, supportive for feed grains while being bearish for soybeans. There were 39 million bushels of 2023/24 corn export sales- the largest volume of the marketing year. For soybeans, there were net cancelations of soybean sales for the current marketing year with below average new crop sales.
– Total corn consumed for fuel in July totaled 454 million bushels up 3% from June and 2% from July 2022.
– Soybeans crushed for crude oil in July totaled 184.8 million bushels up 10 million from June and 4 million from July 2022. The July 2023 volume was also above the average trade guess of 181.2.
– Open interest positions of Chicago futures and options were mixed on the week: Chicago wheats-flat, corn- -12.7%, soybeans- +1.2%, cotton- +4.4%, and rough rice- +3.8%.
– Managed money traders bought 18.8 thousand net corn contracts after being big sellers the last couple weeks. Money managers also bought net positions of soybeans to increase their net long 32.8 thousand contracts.