Good Morning!
Hard rains over the weekend flooded Argentina’s key soybean growing areas and more rains are forecasted on Friday. This propelled the Grain complex in yesterday’s trading session. The market seems to have calmed down in the overnight electronic session waiting for confirmation of strength and further damage the next storm may produce in key soybean growing areas in southern Santa Fe and northwest Buenos Aires. According to the news source Reuters. The March corn is currently trading at 365 ¾, which is ¼ of a cent higher. The trading range has been 366 ¼ to 364.
On the ethanol front there were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. The February contract settled at 1.506 and is currently showing 6 bids @ 1.485 and 1 offer @ 1.514 with Open Interest at 2.741 contracts.
On the crude oil front the Energy Information Administration released a story that U.S shale production is increasing threatening the OPEC production cuts. The timing of the report just before the 1:30 P.M. close seemed to be a mirage and just shake traders out of the market with February Option Expiration. Just doing the math the increase of 41,000 barrels a day in Texas is just a blip on the radar screen, there are plenty of shale producers stuck in dry dock as the cuts of 1.8 million barrels is real and being adhered to, so far. Tonight we have the API Energy Stocks In the overnight electronic the February crude oil is currently trading at 5171, which is 77 points lower. The trading range has been 5279 to 5150.
On the natural gas front the market is trading easier with the short-term weather outlook. Cold weather is forecasted to follow the warm front. In the overnight electronic session the February contract is currently trading at 3.362, which is 5 cents lower. The trading range has been 3.437 to 3.352.
Other data today include CPI and Real Earnings at 7:30 A.M. and Capacity Utilization and Industrial Production at 8:15 A.M.
Have a Great Trading Day!