Good Morning!
We kickoff the day with Unemployment, U.S. Trade Balance and Wholesale Trade at 7:30 A.M., Fed Evans and Fed Mester Speech at 8:20 A.M., Wholesale Inventories MoM at 9:00 A.M., Baker Hughes Oil and Total Rig Count at 12:00 P.M., Fed Williams and Fed Rosengren Speech at 1:00 P.M., Consumer Credit at 2:00 P.M. and Fed George Speech at 2:30 P.M. The market continues to brace for the economic impact as the markets whirlybird out of control every time a headline hits with more documented coronavirus cases. Whispers on the street is that Wuhan is getting back to normalcy faster than expected. With banks in survival testing mode this reminds me of the bank stress tests in the Financial crisis in 2008. The question is whether the Fed will take further action before the March 17 & 18 FOMC meeting.
On the Corn front the coronavirus is still in play scaring investors and traders of the slowdown of feed, food and fuel. I still see this as another panic attack that should be short-lived as we are working overtime to get this pandemic in check. Lower than expected Export Sales did not help with what the street was expecting. The usual suspects were the best buyers with Mexico and South Korea stepping up to the plate. The positive sign in the exports was the USMCA trade deal keeps Mexico a frequent shopper. In the overnight electronic session the May Corn is currently trading at 379 ½, which is 2 ¼ cents lower. The trading range has been 382 ¼ to 379.
On the Ethanol front there is talk that China will step in and buy Corn and Soybean products and will be also step into importing Ethanol. There were no trades in the overnight electronic session. The April contract settled at 1.257 and is currently showing 1 bid @ 1.223 and 2 offers @ 1.266 with Open Interest at 356 contracts.
On the Crude Oil front Kazakhstan and Russia are playing hardball with production cuts which s pressuring the Energy sector this morning. The Saudi’s continue to negotiate after the meetings failed to produce a unified outcome. Therefore, we may see another headline later in the trading session. As we currently stand at he said and she said. In the overnight electronic session the April Crude Oil is currently trading at 4382 which is 208 points lower. The trading range has been 4638 to 4317.
On the Natural Gas front the April contract is currently trading at 1.747 which is 2 ½ cents lower. The trading range has been 1.767 to 1.733. Producers are giving LNG away at this point as we see know upswing in demand other than price and plenty of product in the ground.
Have a Great Trading Day!