Corn, Wheat Slide on Profit-Taking
July 18 2019 - 4:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Kirk Maltais
--Corn for December delivery fell 2.7% to $4.29 3/4 a bushel on
the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday, with some traders
continuing to take advantage of recent higher prices to sell.
--Wheat for September delivery lost 2.4% to close at $4.93 1/2 a
bushel.
--Soybeans for December delivery fell 0.2% to $8.99 a
bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
Stormy: The weather forecast for the Corn Belt calls for
scattered showers and thunderstorms over the next few days, easing
recent speculation that unrelenting hot temperatures would further
damage the crops. "It's raining in Chicago right now, that's
usually a sign that guys are going to short [grains]," said John
Payne of Daniels Trading.
Hope Floats: Soybeans were spared from the selling that hit corn
and wheat, as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke to
Chinese officials. Remaining ever-hopeful that a resolution in the
trade standoff between the two nations is just around the corner,
soybean trading among traders and managed money funds essentially
paused. No updates on the talks came out during the trading
session.
INSIGHT
Prevented Planting: Grains traders are locked in a debate over
how much acreage has been claimed under the prevented-planting
option, with some speculating as much as 8 million acres of corn
and 3 million acres of soybeans will be paid out under the program.
A USDA spokesperson declined to confirm how many acres have been
claimed but did say that the USDA's Risk Management Agency has paid
roughly $300 million in prevented-planting claims for the 2019 crop
year as of July 15, up more than $100 million from the previous
week.
Spring Bites Into ADM: Unrelenting spring showers that kept
Midwest farmers from sowing a timely crop are continuing to
challenge agricultural conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland, say
Credit Suisse analysts. In particularly hard-hit areas, like
eastern Corn Belt states, the projected decline in this year's
harvest is driving corn prices sharply higher, cutting into
processing margins for ADM's ethanol plants and its grain-shipping
operations, Credit Suisse figures. The analysts expect ADM to
temper its profit outlook for the full year, which has been to meet
or exceed 2018's $3.50 a share.
AHEAD
--The USDA will release its monthly cattle on feed report at
3:00 p.m. EDT Friday.
--The CFTC will releases its weekly commitment of traders data
at 3:30 p.m. EDT Friday.
--Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 18, 2019 15:55 ET (19:55 GMT)
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