Wheat Rebounds on Buying Opportunity -- Daily Grain Highlights
August 19 2022 - 3:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Kirk Maltais
-- Wheat for December delivery rose 3.1% to $7.72 1/2 a bushel
on the Chicago Board of Trade Friday, with traders backtracking
from strong selling in recent days.
-- Corn for December delivery rose 1.2% to $6.23 1/4 a
bushel.
-- Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.1% to $14.06 1/4 a
bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
Bargain Hunting: Wheat futures are retracing ground ceded in
trading Thursday when the contract shed 4.2%. Fund traders saw this
session as a prime opportunity to pick up wheat positions at an
attractive price.
"Fund managers are covering fresh shorts in wheat, but new
export demand is lacking," said AgResource in a note. The firm
estimates that through midday, funds purchased roughly 5,700
contracts of wheat.
Flagging Enthusiasm: Soybeans spent much of the trading session
lower, with fresh news lacking.
No new flash export sales were reported by the USDA, and
meanwhile soybean-growing areas such as Iowa received some
rainfall, which is expected to bolster the health of the U.S.
crop.
"Overnight we had showers over northern and eastern Iowa, and
rains spread over much of the state during the day, which should
have further shrunk the dry areas," said Charlie Sernatinger of
ED&F Man Capital in a note.
INSIGHTS
Looking Ahead: Grain traders spent Friday shifting their
attention toward next week's Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour, in hopes
of fresh news being injected into the market.
"Next week could be exciting with the crop images on twitter and
the subsequent yield estimate speculation in the ag community,"
said Craig Turner of Daniels Trading in a note. "Based on the
conversations I have with farmers in the Midwest, I would not be
surprised if the production is better overall than what many of the
bulls believe."
The eastern and western legs of the tour are scheduled to begin
Monday, with the tour concluding in Rochester, Minn., on
Thursday.
A Month In: It has now been a month since the Ukrainian grain
export corridor deal was reached, and while many observers have
questioned the feasibility of such a deal amid ongoing conflict,
the deal appears to have yielded tangible results.
"A month on from the signing of the Ukraine-Russia agreement and
there are clear signs that export pace has picked up for the key
Ukraine ports," said Tim Worledge of Fastmarkets. "Fastmarkets
monitoring of lineup and shipping intelligence suggests that the
ships trapped in port at the beginning of the conflict have now
largely been able to move."
The firm adds that while the ships moving to and from ports so
far have been smaller in size. Panamax vessels that can carry as
much as 80,000 metric tons of cargo have started to arrive at
Ukrainian ports.
Staying Strong: Deere & Co. says that it is seeing strong
demand for its equipment heading into 2023.
"Looking ahead, we believe favorable conditions will continue
into 2023 based on the strong response we have experienced to
early-order programs, " says John May, the company's chief
executive, in its third-quarter earnings report. "We are working
closely with our factories and suppliers to meet higher levels of
customer demand next year."
AHEAD
-- The USDA is scheduled to release its weekly grains export
inspections report at 11 a.m. EDT Monday.
-- The USDA is due to release its monthly Cold Storage Report at
3 p.m. EDT Monday.
-- The USDA is scheduled to release its weekly crop progress
report at 4 p.m. EDT Monday.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 19, 2022 15:16 ET (19:16 GMT)
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