Wheat Falls as Fund Traders Pull Back - Daily Grain Highlights
September 21 2021 - 03:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Kirk Maltais
--Wheat for December delivery fell 1.5% to $6.90 1/4 a bushel on
the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday as futures slid amid a lack for
enthusiasm for wheat by traders.
--Corn for December delivery fell 0.9% to $5.17 a bushel.
--Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.1% to $7.00 3/4 a
bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
Get Back: A pullback by large fund traders pressured wheat
futures today. "Wheat futures are weaker on liquidation and
Friday's weekly drop in the Russian export tax rate," said
AgResource. According to the firm, fund traders have sold 5,100
contracts of wheat through midday today. In Friday's report from
the CFTC, managed money firms had closed roughly 20,000 contracts
of wheat long positions through September 14 - with price movement
since indicating a continuation of this trend.
Getting Better: An improvement in crop quality for corn and
soybeans also pressured grains today - even as some areas show
signs of yield-hurting disease. "You have to wonder what is going
on with the reporting in Illinois because there have been wild
gyrations in the reporting out of Illinois all summer," said Tomm
Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage. "All of this just adds
to the yield uncertainty and keeps the buyers on the sidelines
until more is known about the size of the crop." Both corn and
soybeans saw a 1-point improvement to conditions this week, with
corn at 59% good or excellent and soybeans at 58% good or
excellent.
INSIGHTS
On Track: Harvesting of corn and soybean crops in the U.S.
appears to be in line with the normal pace of recent years,
according to the USDA's latest crop progress report. U.S. corn
harvest is at 10% complete this week, up from a 4-year average of
9%. Meanwhile, the soybean harvest is 6% complete, the same as the
4-year average. As the harvest progresses, the question of yields
and crop health will be thrust into the forefront. "Even with
harvest progressing across the United States we are hearing more
discrepancies when it comes to yields and potential crop sizes,"
said Karl Setzer of AgriVisor. "Several reports are coming in that
the crops are not as good as thought, especially on corn."
Husks Are Hurting: A spread of a fungal disease in field corn
called "tar spot disease" is affecting corn being harvested in the
U.S. Midwest, particularly states like Indiana, according to Purdue
University. Purdue says rainfall and long periods of leaf wetness
early in July and throughout the growing season produced favorable
conditions for the disease to develop and spread - with it leaving
small raised black spots on corn husks. The university adds that
the disease may lead to "significant yield loss" for corn affected
by it.
Extended Decline: Inventories of ethanol in the U.S. look to
continue their decline this week, according to analysts surveyed by
Dow Jones. They forecast that inventories for the week ended
September 17 will total anywhere from 19.51 million barrels to
20.01 million barrels, versus 20.01 million barrels reported last
week by the EIA. If barrels do drop again this week, it'll be the
eighth consecutive week that inventories have fallen. Meanwhile,
daily ethanol production is expected to rise in this week's report,
to anywhere from 923,000 barrels per day to 952,000 barrels per day
versus 937,000 barrels per day last week.
AHEAD:
--General Mills Inc. will release its fiscal first-quarter
earnings before the stock market opens on Wednesday.
--The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks
report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.
--The USDA will release its monthly cold storage report at 3
p.m. ET Wednesday.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 21, 2021 15:35 ET (19:35 GMT)
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