Good Morning!
We kickoff the day with more earnings and reports with Employment Cost Index and Personal Income at 7:30 A.M., Chicago PMI and Consumer Confidence at 9:00 A.M. followed by the API Energy Stocks at 3:30 P.M. and the FOMC meeting starting today with the Interest-Rate decision, when I do not expect a rate hike this time around. On the Grain front the USDA lowered crop condition ratings for U.S. Corn and Soybeans 1% from a week ago mainly due to dryness building in portions of the Mid-west. In the overnight electronic session the September Corn is currently trading at 3701/4 which is 3 cents higher. The trading range has been 370 ¼ to 366 ¼. Investors will surmise dryness in the weather and heat that will effect yields while the U.S. crop is still the best buy and cheapest in the world.
On the Ethanol front the September contract posted a trade at 1.455, which is .005 lower with 5 contracts traded and the market is currently showing 1 bid @ 1.451 and 1 offer @ 1.455 while Open Interest tailed off to 1,152 contracts.
On the Crude Oil front the market failed to punch through key resistance at roughly 7048-7050 level in yesterday’s trading session after several attempts. Now we are back to choppy sideways action that could lead us on another roller-coaster ride. In the overnight electronic session the September Crude Oil is currently trading at 6967, which is 46 points lower. The trading range has been 7022 to 6955. We should expect more volatility with President Trump offering an olive branch to Iran, saying he would meet with them anytime. Let’s see if Iran will dance to the tune or we should just wait for the next headline.
On the Natural Gas front the market was happy to see the EU is setting up the infrastructure to import U.S. LNG and the market seems to be in pause mode at the moment after another higher close since the deal was struck last week between President Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. This comes between the two biggest economic blocs in the world. In the overnight electronic session the September Natural Gas is currently trading at 2.817 which is 2 cents higher. The market did jump after trading lower and the trading range has been 2.819 to 2.772.
Have a Great Trading Day