White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow was quoted as saying that a preliminary trade meeting between the U.S. and Chinese officials was canceled, “with respects the story is not true,” Kudlow said to CNBC. Also U.S. exporters last week loaded six Soybean vessels bound for China, the most in any week since the start of the tariff war between Washington and Beijing which is an encouraging sign to U.S. farmers hard hit by the trade fight. Also, Dan Basse president of Chicago-based Ag-Resources was quoted, “This shows that the Chinese are active in shipping and keeping their promise that they not only bought U.S Beans but they are keeping their promise that they not only bought U.S. Beans but they’re taking U.S. Beans. We see that as encouraging”. Other encouraging news is that China pledged to buy more Corn, Crude Oil, Ethanol and Wheat. This positive news is a far cry from what the IMF was preaching yesterday, in which their data is historically wrong. On the Corn front, the March contract is currently trading at 380 ¼ which is 1 ¼ of a cent higher. The trading range has been 381 to 379 ¼.
On the Ethanol front, the February contract is currently trading at 1.272 which is .001 higher. The trading range has been 1.273 to 1.271% contracts traded and Open Interest is at 1,253 contracts. The market is currently showing 2 bids at 1.272 and 2 offers at 1.276. U.S. and China trade talks could be a boon to producers profits.
On the Crude Oil front, the market is slowly recovering after the IMF. Let’s take a look at how many excessive taxes brought down healthy economies, and the fundamentals on Crude Oil is showing rig counts biggest drop in 3 years, Frackers continue to curb output and unfortunately, in some cases cease operations and OPEC will continue production cuts. This with China needing to come to the table and negotiate seriously this market is due to explode. In the overnight electronic session, the March Crude Oil is currently trading at 5325 which is 24 cents higher. The trading range has been 5364 to 5269.
On the Natural Gas front the topsy-turvy volatile market as different weather reports have the market trying to recover from its selloff yesterday. The question is, how long will the cold weather stay? It depends on who you ask. In the overnight electronic session, the February Natural Gas is currently trading at 3.125 which is 8 ½ cents higher. The trading range has been 3.167 to 3.047.