We kickoff this morning with Business Inventories, PPI and Retail Sales at 7:30 A.M. EIA Energy Stocks at 9:30 A.M. and Dairy Product Sales at 2:00 P.M. Corn Sales continue to be the story, with outstanding exports and trade war talk with China. At the end of the day China’s President Xi Jinping now president for life has a keen sense of knowledge not to have food shortages and keep his people fed. And across the globe the U.S. will not be such a secondary market we have seen in years past. It will be interesting to see the changes in planting intentions and if weather may force farmers to replant acres. In the overnight electronic session the May Corn is currently trading at 391 which is ¾ of a cent lower. The trading range has been 391 ¼ to 389 ¾.
On the Ethanol front the April contract is currently trading at 1.520 which is .002 lower in the overnight electronic session. The trading range has been 1.531 to 1.520 with 2 contracts changing hands and Open Interest picking up to 1,131 contracts.
On the crude oil front the market sold off in the most surreptitious way with some investors linking the break to the firing of Rex Tillerson and some linking it to Iran’s announcement of raising oil production that will not take place or impact the market anytime soon. Late yesterday we had a very bullish API number which is why we are higher now. In the overnight electronic session the April crude oil is currently trading at 6115 which is 44 points higher. The trading range has been 6133 to 6061. If there is no Stock Market meltdown and once we get out of maintenance season, Katy Bar the Door! We should see a significant rally during the summer driving season.
On the Natural Gas front with the extremely rough winter in the North East and cooler temperatures registered in the lower 48 this winter still cannot drive this well supplied market. Tomorrow we have the EIA Gas Storage and regardless of draws expected this will just be another example that this market can’t sustain any type of a rally. In the overnight electronic session the April Natural Gas is currently trading at 2.746 which is 4 cents lower. The trading range has been 2.798 to 2.728.