Soybeans Fall on Inflation Concerns -- Daily Grain Highlights
December 06 2021 - 3:51PM
Dow Jones News
By Kirk Maltais
-- Soybeans for January delivery fell 0.5% to $12.61 1/2 a
bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Monday, with concerns
affecting the wider markets weighing down grains for most of the
day.
-- Corn for March delivery fell 0.1% to $5.83 1/2 a bushel.
-- Wheat for March delivery rose 0.3% to $8.06 1/4 a bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
Get Out of the Way: Concerns about inflation and the Federal
Reserve's approach toward it have sparked a dumping of long
positions in grains, a trend continued for much of the day Monday.
The CFTC reported in its latest commitments of traders report
Friday that managed money firms cut their corn longs by over 38,000
contracts, while soybeans longs were cut by over 9,000 contracts
and combined wheat longs were cut by nearly 12,000 contracts.
"CFTC data on Friday showed the managed money spec funds hastily
exiting some of their net long futures position at month end," said
Alan Brugler of Price Futures Group.
Key Area: Grain futures pared their losses for the day late in
trading Monday with wheat turning higher. The uptick seen in wheat
came as Russia builds up its troops at the Ukrainian border, with
the threat of hostilities happening in a big wheat exporting
area.
"Presidents Biden and Putin will be talking Tuesday, but most
sources doubt that Putin will back down," said AgResource.
"Sanctions will likely include the world banking system and some
ban on ag/energy exports."
Follow the Leader: The weakness seen in other assets were the
key to pressure on grains this morning.
"Prices [are] being negatively affected by the weakness in the
equity markets and the cryptocurrencies and likely some
profit-taking from the runup on Friday," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of
Summit Commodity Brokerage. Over the weekend, prices for bitcoin
shed as much as 20%, according to data from CoinDesk, although they
have since recovered some of that loss.
Unease over the Omicron variant and unease over inflation are
seen as factors pressuring that market.
INSIGHTS
Standing Ready: With the USDA's next WASDE report due Thursday,
grains traders are getting themselves in position ahead of the
report, says Karl Setzer of AgriVisor.
"Typically the December WASDE data receives little attention as
only the demand side is updated in the domestic balance sheets,"
said Mr. Setzer. "This year may be different though as trade has
placed elevated interest in all balance sheet updates for the past
year regardless of their historic tendencies."
Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that
stocks of soybeans and wheat in the U.S. are going to be higher in
this month's WASDE report from the USDA versus last month's
report.
In Protest: The EPA's latest proposal to extend the deadlines
for compliance dates under the Renewable Fuel Standard program
sparked some protests from groups representing the renewable fuels
sector.
"What we see is an admission that EPA will miss the statutory
deadlines going forward, while making it easier to do so," said
Kate Shenk of the National Biodiesel Board. "EPA is acting as if
there is no statutory deadline for promulgating annual rules."
Grains traders were looking for the EPA to release its new rules
last week, and the lack of any new rules being released put
pressure on corn and soybean futures.
Slight Move: Inspections of U.S. grains slipped slightly from
the previous week, according to the USDA. In its latest weekly
grain export inspections report, the USDA said for the week ended
Dec. 2, inspections of corn totaled 758,169 metric tons, soybean
inspections totaled 2.25 million tons, and wheat inspections
totaled 245,963 tons, all slightly lower than last week's
inspections.
China continues to be the main destination for U.S. soybeans,
totaling over 1.4 million tons for the week, according to the
USDA.
AHEAD
-- The EIA is scheduled to release its weekly ethanol production
and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. EST Wednesday.
-- The USDA is due to release its weekly export sales report at
8:30 a.m. EST Thursday.
-- The USDA is scheduled to release its monthly WASDE report at
noon EST Thursday.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 06, 2021 15:36 ET (20:36 GMT)
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