Brownfield’s Weekly Commodity update featuring former OSU Extension Ag Economist Ben Brown.
This Weeks Topics:
- Market recap
- Corn and soybean acreage
- Corn and soybean production
- Reports to watch
Market recap (Changes on week as of Monday’s close):
– December 2023 corn up $.05 at $4.85
– November soybeans up $.06 at $13.69
– October soybean oil down 2.63 cents at 61.34 cents/lb
– October soybean meal up $5.80 at $406.00/short ton
– December 2023 wheat down $.14 at $5.84
– July 2024 wheat down $.12 at $6.37
– September WTI Crude Oil up $2.13 at $85.87/barrel
Weekly Highlights
- US crude oil stocks were down again last week continuing a trend over the last month. Globally production cuts by the top exporters are being offset by other global producers and lower global demand.
- Ethanol production was basically flat on the week- up 2 million gallons. Gasoline demand was up on the week while ethanol stocks were flat suggesting that ethanol exports have been rather sluggish in August.
- It was the last week of export sales of the 2022/23 marketing year for corn and soybeans with net cancelations on of corn and 5.7 net sales for soybeans. However, new crop 2023/24 sales finally showed some life.
- Open interest positions of Chicago futures and options were largely up: Chicago wheats-flat, corn- +1.4%, soybeans- +2.2%, cotton- +10.4%, and rough rice- +14.7%.
- Managed money traders bought back 168 futures and options positions to slightly decrease their net short position in that commodity, while also selling off 6,565 contracts of corn increasing the net short, and also selling 8,175 contracts of Chicago soybeans decreasing the net long for that commodity.
- US ag export inspection data was mixed this week- for feed grains it was a relatively strong week with corn, grain, and wheats with all reaching multi-month highs. Soybean inspections were the lowest since early August.
- Crop conditions continue to deteriorate. Corn was down 1 point to 337, but up 1 point from last year. Soybeans fell 3 points to 337 and are 10 below last year. Cotton conditions fell a point to 275 and are also down 10 points relatively to last year.
- Five percent of the US corn crop is harvested- compared to 4% on average. Eight percent of the US cotton crop has been harvested. Forty-five percent of the US rice crop has been harvested compared to an average of 35%.