Chicago Markets, Mixed On The Day And Mixed For The Week
14/11/14 -- Soycomplex: Beans and meal finished lower on the day, and lower for the week, Nov 14 beans went off the board the best part of 30 cents down. "It seems that at least for the moment the tight pipeline has been filled with export basis values sharply lower and rumours that southeastern feeds have covered needs with cheaper South American soymeal," said Benson Quinn. Weekly export sales for beans came in at just over 1 MMT, which was in line with expectation. Informa trimmed slightly their projected 2015 US soybean planted area estimate to a record 88.35 million acres. The USDA's October 2014 acreage estimate was 84.184 million acres, so this would represent a 5% increase on this year. The USDA announced 180,000 MT of US beans sold to China for 2014/15 shipment. These had previously been reported as sales to "unknown" destinations. Nov 14 Soybeans closed at $10.21, down 29 1/2 cents; Jan 15 Soybeans closed at $10.22 1/2, down 31 cents; Dec 14 Soybean Meal closed at $379.90, down $13.60; Dec 14 Soybean Oil closed at 32.20, up 13 points. For the week front month beans were 19 1/4 cents lower, with meal losing $10.50 and oil falling 20 points.
Corn: The corn market closed lower on the day, but higher for the week. Profit-taking and increased producer selling after a decent attempt at rallying this week may also have been features heading into the weekend. Weekly export sales of 505 TMT were towards the low end of expectations. "Sales have reached 44.4% of the USDA export estimate, which compares to a 5-year average of 49.3%. Sales need to average 579,000 MT a week to meet the current estimate," noted Benson Quinn. Rabobank explained the recent strength in corn by suggesting that cash corn supplies available to the market as of Nov 1 were down 18% from year ago. This was due to the slow harvest pace and the lack of farmer selling for harvest delivery, they said. Informa estimated US 2015 corn plantings at 88.3 million acres, down from the 88.77 million forecast previously and the USDA's figure for this season of 90.855 million. The trade will be keen to see how much corn got harvested in the US this week in Monday's crop progress report from the USDA. As of last week, 20% of the crop remained unharvested and this week's weather hasn't been friendly. Dec 14 Corn closed at $3.81 3/4, down 4 1/2 cents; Mar 15 Corn closed at $3.94 1/4, down 4 1/2 cents. For the week Dec 14 corn was still 14 1/4 cents higher.
Wheat: The wheat market closed higher on the day, and posted decent gains for the week. Weekly export sales of just under 418 TMT were relatively uninspiring, but in line with expectations. "There doesn’t appear to be any new market moving headlines to explain this week’s sharp move higher, other than rehashing what we already knew about Australian harvest, the Russian crop headed into dormancy, etc.," noted Benson Quinn. The recent uptick in tensions in Ukraine/Russia also remains a supportive factor. Even so, Ukraine says that its farmers have now planted 7.5 million hectares of winter grains, or 100% of the expected area, including 6.366 million ha of winter wheat, which is more than was originally forecast. The Ukraine Ministry said that as of Nov 1, Ukraine grain stocks were up 31% on a year ago at 29.9 MMT. Kazakhstan said that its 2014 grain harvest was 96% done at 18.2 MMT. Informa estimated US winter wheat plantings for the 2015 harvest at 42.2 million hectares, up fom 41.79 million previously but down slightly from 42.4 million a year ago. Dec 14 CBOT Wheat closed at $5.60 1/2, up 6 3/4 cents; Dec 14 KCBT Wheat closed at $6.05 1/2, up 1/4 cent; Dec 14 MGEX Wheat closed at $5.89 1/4, up 5 cents. For the week, front month Chicago wheat added 46 cents, with the Minneapolis market adding 45 cents and Kansas up 39 1/4 cents.