PDF Attached

 

Outside
markets largely influenced agriculture prices today, along with a large decline in some of the related overseas markets, such as Chinese soybean meal that fell 3.2% as SAF disease concerns rippled through the market.  The China Ag Ministry issued a notice
that all localities must step up control of African Swine Fever.  The USD rocketed higher.  While there was not heavy volume Friday, we did see some key EIA data and CFTC updates that should be considered. 

 

 

 

Weather

 

SA Week 1 Accum Precipitation (mm) Forecast

 

World
Weather Inc.

WORLD
WEATHER CHANGES AND AREAS OF INTEREST

  • Argentina
    is still looking dry biased for the next ten days with only a little rain in the west and north infrequently. 
    • The
      dry bias will be most significant in the central and south
    • rain
      is most likely in the west-central and northeast
  • Brazil
    weather has not changed much overnight
    • Rain
      will still fall in many areas at various times, but alternating periods of rain and sunshine are expected
      • Fieldwork
        will advance around the precipitation, but some areas will be a little too wet for optimum conditions
  • Rain
    still falls in a part of U.S. hard red winter wheat country Wednesday into Thursday next week, but it is being down-played in the west-central and southwestern high Plains
    • Rainfall
      will vary from 0.05 to 0.25 inch in the west and 0.30 to 1.00 inch in the east
  • Heavy
    rain still occurs through the weekend and into Monday in the Delta and Tennessee River Basin with some flooding expected.
    • Rain
      totals of 2.50 to 6.00 inches are likely
    • Some
      follow up rain is expected late next week that will push those totals even higher
  • 06z
    GFS model run has increased snow and rain in the U.S. northern Plains, Upper Midwest and Canada’s eastern Prairies for March 6-8.
    • This
      feature is overdone. 
  • One
    more storm system occurs in the heart of the U.S. Midwest March 8-9, but is dependent upon the advancing colder air advertised into the north-central U.S. at that time.
  • Unusually
    warm air will be present in the U.S. Midwest March 2-9 and some of this will be in eastern Canada’s Prairies, too, but cooling occurred shortly thereafter – at least for a little while
  • River
    ice on the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers will slowly decrease during the next week to ten days
  • Southwestern
    U.S. drought is not likely to change anytime soon
  • West
    Texas dryness will prevail despite a few showers early next week and a few more late next week.
    • Warming
      temperatures will increase drying rates between precipitation events, although the region cooled Thursday
    • No
      relief from long term dryness is expected through the next ten days
  • South
    Texas crop areas are still too dry
    • 70-
      and 80-degree Fahrenheit high temperatures in the coming week will accelerate the dryness while raising soil temperatures. Planting in irrigated areas will occur soon
  • Very
    little change in Russia/Ukraine or the remainder of Europe was noted overnight
  • India
    remains dry and warm for the next ten days
  • China
    still sees precipitation in most of the nation with the Yangtze River Basin and areas into the interior south are still expected to get abundant rain
    • Yunnan
      remains dry biased through the next ten days possibly delaying corn planting
  • Eastern
    Australia rainfall is erratic and mostly light except in northeastern New South Wales where the greatest rain is expected
  • Interior
    western Australia is wetter biased for a while next week following a tropical cyclone that dissipates in the northwest 
  • South
    Africa precipitation will remain limited for the next ten days, although some showers will occur intermittently
    • Net
      drying is expected
    • Crop
      and field conditions are still rated well for now
  • Portions
    of North Africa are still too dry raising concern over spring crop development
    • Some
      rain fell in Morocco Thursday and more showers are likely into Monday improving soil conditions in some areas
    • Northwestern
      Algeria and southwestern Morocco are driest in North Africa, although Tunisia and northeastern Algeria have been drying down recently and may not get much moisture for a while.
  • Mexico
    drought conditions are still prevailing, although the impact on winter crops is low due to irrigation
    • Water
      supply is low in some areas and a notable improvement in rainfall is needed, but not very likely
    • Dryland
      winter crops are stressed and will yield poorly
    • Freeze
      damage is common in northern parts of the nation due to a couple of cold surges this winter
  • West
    Africa rainfall will remain mostly confined to coastal areas for a while, but may drift to the north into some coffee and cocoa production areas early next week
  • East-central
    Africa precipitation will be scattered over the coming week
    • The
      lightest and most infrequent rain occurring in Ethiopia and parts of Uganda while the most significant rain occurs in Tanzania where all crop areas will get moisture
  • Southeast
    Asia rainfall will occur relatively normally over the next two weeks
    • Mainland
      areas will be mostly dry, although a few showers could pop up across the region next week
      • All
        of the precipitation will be sporadic and light having little to no impact on crops or soil conditions
    • Philippines
      rainfall will be scattered and light
    • Indonesia
      and Malaysia weather during the next two weeks will bring rain to most crop areas maintaining a very good outlook for crop development
      • Sumatra,
        Peninsular Malaysia and eastern Borneo have been drying out recently and greater rain is needed
  • New
    Zealand weather over the next ten days will include erratic and often light rainfall and seasonable temperatures
  • Mexico
    precipitation in the coming ten days will be mostly confined to the east coast
  • Central
    America precipitation will continue greatest along the Caribbean Coast and in Guatemala while the Pacific Coast is relatively dry
  • Southern
    Oscillation Index is beginning to fall once again and was at +12.12 this morning. The index is expected to continue to fall notably over the next several days
  • Canada
    Prairies will experience seasonable temperatures over the next ten days with precipitation mostly near to below average
    • Some
      occasional precipitation will occur along the front range of mountains in Alberta and across the southwestern Prairies as well as in a few northeastern crop areas
  • Southeast
    Canada will experience near to above normal amounts of precipitation in the coming week while temperatures are seasonable.

Source:
World Weather Inc. and FI

 

Bloomberg
Ag Calendar

Friday,
Feb 26:

  • ICE
    Futures Europe weekly commitments of traders report, 1:30pm (6:30pm London)
  • CFTC
    commitments of traders weekly report on positions for various U.S. futures and options, 3:30pm
  • U.S.
    agricultural prices paid, received, 3pm
  • Earnings:
    Olam
  • HOLIDAY:
    Thailand

Monday,
March 1:

  • USDA
    Export Inspections – corn, soybeans, wheat, 11am
  • EU
    weekly grain, oilseed import and export data
  • Ivory
    Coast cocoa arrivals
  • Malaysia’s
    February palm oil exports data
  • Australia
    Commodity Index
  • U.S.
    DDGS production, corn for ethanol, 3pm
  • USDA
    soybean crush, 3pm
  • HOLIDAY:
    South Korea

Tuesday,
March 2:

  • Australia’s
    Abares to release agricultural commodities report
  • Abares
    to hold online Outlook 2021 conference, March 2-5
  • New
    Zealand global dairy trade auction
  • U.S.
    Purdue Agriculture Sentiment, 9:30am
  • International
    Sweetener Colloquium virtual event to cover sugar outlook, March 2-3

Wednesday,
March 3:

  • EIA
    weekly U.S. ethanol inventories, production
  • ANZ
    Commodity Price
  • Brazil’s
    Unica to release sugar production, cane crush data

Thursday,
March 4:

  • FAO
    World Food Price Index, grains supply and demand reports
  • USDA
    weekly crop net-export sales for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, pork, beef, 8:30am
  • Port
    of Rouen data on French grain exports
  • U.S.
    National Coffee Association hosts annual convention (virtual), March 4-5

Friday,
March 5:

  • ICE
    Futures Europe weekly commitments of traders report (6:30pm London)
  • CFTC
    commitments of traders weekly report on positions for various U.S. futures and options, 3:30pm
  • Malaysia’s
    March 1-5 palm oil export data
  • FranceAgriMer
    weekly update on crop conditions
  • China’s
    CNGOIC to publish supply and demand reports on commodities such as corn and soybeans

Source:
Bloomberg and FI

 

 

 

CFTC
Commitment of Traders

 

Not
too many surprises like last week when it came to actual readings for the CFTC Commitment of Traders report.  Funds were less long for soybeans and wheat and more long for corn and soybean meal.  Soybean oil was near expectations.  What remains is that both
traditional funds and managed money are both very long.  Changes in futures only versus futures and options combined did not line up for corn and soybeans, a hint option trading dominated some of the volume for the week ending February 23. 

 

 

 

 

 

Macros

US
Personal Income Jan: 10.0% (est 9.5%; prev 0.6%)

US
Personal Spending Jan: 2.4% (est 2.5%; prev -0.2%)

US
PCE Core Deflator (M/M) Jan: 0.3% (est 0.1%; prev 0.3%)

US
PCE Core Deflator (Y/Y) Jan: 1.5% (est 1.4%; prev 1.5%)

US
PCE Deflator (M/M) Jan: 0.3% (est 0.3%; prev 0.4%)

US
PCE Deflator (Y/Y) Jan: 1.5% (est 1.4%; prev 1.3%)

US
Advance Goods Trade Balance (USD) Jan P: -83.7B (est -83.0B; prevR -83.2B; prev -82.5B)

US
Wholesale Inventories (M/M) Jan P: 1.3% (est 0.4%; prevR 0.5%; prev 0.3%)

US
Retail Inventories (M/M) Jan: 1.3% (est 0.5%; prev 1.0%)

Canadian
Industrial Product Price (M/M) Jan: 2.0% (est 1.9%; prev 1.5%)

Canadian
Raw Materials Price Index (M/M) Jan: 5.7% (prev 3.5%)

 

Corn.

  • Corn
    futures
    prices
    were very choppy today, maybe not so much to SBO, but reflected conflicting opinion on whether to remain a bull to be a bear with extremely high prices.  Lack of US export developments this week are concerning since the optimism of China buying post new year
    holiday is starting to fade.  Corn futures on Friday, last day of the trading month, ended mostly lower on follow through selling, end of month positioning, and a sharply higher USD (up 79.5 as of late Friday).  Outside markets were also providing a bearish
    sentiment, particularly a $1.87 lower trade in WTI crude.  Meanwhile the March corn futures managed to close 0.75 higher, something we would not have seen this morning when most outside markets were setting a bearish undertone. 
  • On
    Friday funds sold an estimated 5,000 contracts after selling 11,000 on Thursday. 
  • There
    were no changes in CBOT corn or oats registrations. 

 

EIA:
Cold
weather results in near-record withdrawals from underground natural gas storage

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46916&src=email

 

EIA
reported
December ethanol production at 30.097 million barrels, slightly higher than our expectation, above 29.908 million during November and well below 33.034 million during December 2019.  We left our 2020-21 US corn for ethanol use projection unchanged at 4.560
billion bushels, 10 million above USDA and compares to 4.852 billion during 2019-20. 

 

 

 

Corn
Export Developments

·        
South Korea’s NOFI bought 137,000 tons of optional origin animal feed corn, for shipment in May and/or June, depending on origin.  68,000 tons was bought at an estimated $294.70 a toe c&f for arrival
in June. Another 69,000 tons was bought at an estimated $293.89 a ton c&f for arrival in July.

 

Updated
2/26/21

March
corn is seen trading in a $5.35 and $5.65range.

May
corn is seen in a $5.15 and $6.00 range.

July
is seen in a $5.00 and $6.00 range.

December
corn is seen in a $3.75-$6.00 range.

 

Soybean
complex
.
 

  • CBOT
    soybean
    s
    saw are wild trade like CBOT corn with March gaining over the back months.  We think it is in part to Brazilian soybean harvest delays but the data we see is that Brazil is aggressively exporting soybeans. 
    Late
    in today’s day session, May soybean oil traded in a 49.69 and 49.88 range, higher, from about 1,100 volume.  Meal ended with bull spreading which I can not explain.  Crush margins look gook Oct and beyond and we warn commercials to look into selling it. 
  • USD
    was up 79.5 and WTI 1.87 lower not an indication for bulls to look for higher prices. 
  • News
    and volume Friday were so light relative to mid-week (surge in inquiries) it was a boring day. 
  • There
    were no changes in CBOT soybean and meal registrations.  SBO registrations fell 25 to 1,248 contracts (Bunge Dec, IN).  There were 7 meal FND deliveries. 
  • On
    Friday funds were net sellers yesterday of 4,000 soybeans, 1,000 meal and were flat in soybean oil. 
  • ICE
    canola May futures were 4.50 higher at 740/ton despite March off 26.10 Canadian dollars. .
  • Indonesia
    left its March crude palm oil export levies unchanged at $255/ton as they set the reference price at $1,036.22/ton vs. $1,026.78/ton for Feb.  Export taxes will remain at $93/ton. 
  • APK-Inform:
    Sunflower oil out of the Ukraine increased about $130 a ton to a range of $1,455 to $1,470 per ton FOB, with delivery in March-May.
  • Offshore
    values are leading soybean oil 44 points lower (184 lower for the week to date) and soybean meal $7.00 lower ($3.80 lower for the week). 
  • China
    cash crush margins on our analysis started the week at low levels, then rallied, only to find a 112 cent value on Friday (143 previous) versus 140 cents last week and compares to 126 cents around this time last year. 
  • USDA
    Attaché on India oilseeds
    https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Oilseeds%20and%20Products%20Update_New%20Delhi_India_03-01-2021
  • Malaysian
    palm oil ended lower on Friday, for the week it was up 7 percent for the month. 

 

U.S.
production of biodiesel

was 159 million gallons in December 2020, 8 million gallons higher than production in November 2020.  There was a total of 1,176 million pounds of feedstocks used to produce biodiesel in December 2020, slightly less than expected, up from 1,130 million pounds
in November and above 1,023 million pounds in December 2019. Soybean oil remained the largest biodiesel feedstock during December 2020 with 744 million pounds consumed.  This was a much larger SBO use figure than expected and represents 63.3% of total feedstock. 
Previously, we had 8.175 billion pounds penciled in for 2020-21 SBO use.  We raised that by 25 million to 8.200 billion, 100 million pounds below USDA and compares to 7.858 billion used in 2019-20.  Our 2020-21 US soybean oil stocks estimate stands at 1.654
billion pounds, below USDA’s 1.714 billion estimate. 

 

 

 

Soybean
Complex Export Developments

  • None
    reported

 

Updated
2/26/21

March
soybeans are seen in a $13.50 and $15 range. (getting tighter as we see contraction in prices)

March
soymeal is seen in a $415 and $450 range.

March
soybean oil is seen in a 47.50 and 53 cent range.

 

Wheat

  • Wheat
    futures
    were
    lower led by fund influenced selling by Chicago SRW.  MN is gaining over KC and Chicago on expectations for spring wheat plantings to get passed up across the northern Great Plains as producers plant more profitable crops such as canola, soybeans and corn. 
  • On
    Friday funds sold an estimated 7,000 soft red winter wheat contracts after selling 6,000 on Wednesday. 
  • KC
    FND deliveries were 89.  There were no Chicago deliveries.
  • MN
    deliveries were 652 (SG delivered 586 and Wells stopped 508.  JP also stopped 115). 
  • Refinitiv:
    Australian
    Premium White wheat quoted around $318-$320 a ton, (C&F), to Southeast Asia, up from $310 a few weeks ago. Australian standard wheat offered at $314 a ton, C&F, while Australian hard wheat is around $325 a ton.  Black Sea new-crop wheat is being quoted at
    $280 a ton for August shipment.
  • FranceAgriMer
    reported 87% of French soft wheat crops were in good or excellent condition by Feb. 22, up a point from the previous week and well above 64% year ago. 

 

Export
Developments.

  • Jordan
    seeks 120,000 tons of animal feed barley on March 2.  Shipment is sought between Sept. 1-15, Sept. 16-30, Oct. 1-15 and Oct 16-31.
  • Jordan
    issued a new import tender for 120,000 tons of wheat, set to close March 3 for October and November shipment. 
  • Taiwan
    seeks 100,410 tons of wheat form the US on March 4 for April 25-May 9 shipment, and May 12-May 26 shipment (2 consignments). 
  • Syria
    seeks 200,000 tons of wheat for shipment within 60 days of contract signing. 

 

Rice/Other

·        
CBOT rice deliveries were 515 contracts. 

·        
Mauritius seeks 4,000 tons of long grain white rice, optional origin, on March 2, for delivery between April 15 and June 15.

·        
South Korea’s Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. seeks 38,889 tons of rice from the United States and China, part arrival in South Korea around Sept. 30 from the US. Another 16,667 tons of non-glutinous
short grain brown rice from China is sought for arrival around June 30.

 

Updated
2/22/21

March
Chicago wheat is seen in a $6.30‐$7.00 range.

March
KC wheat is seen in a $6.00‐$6.70 range.

March
MN wheat is seen in a $6.00‐$6.55 range.

We
see the May trading ranges keeping a 10 to 15 cent premium over March for the balance of the month. 

 

Terry Reilly

Senior Commodity Analyst – Grain and Oilseeds

Futures International
One Lincoln Center
18 W 140 Butterfield Rd.

Oakbrook Terrace, Il. 60181

W: 312.604.1366

treilly@futures-int.com

ICE IM: 
treilly1

Skype: fi.treilly

 

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