Headlines:

  • Ag sector ‘at the bottom of cycle’, Bunge boss says, foreseeing ‘better’ 2018
    The agriculture sector is at, or near, “the bottom” of a cycle which has seen prices and volatility depressed by sizeable stocks, Bunge boss Soren Schroder said, saying that 2018 “will be better, for sure”. Mr. Schroder, the chief executive of the agricultural trading giant, said that it was “clear that we are in the middle of or maybe at the end, the beginning of the end, of a multi-year down cycle in agriculture”. This had been marked by “mounting global stocks” of agricultural commodities and “competition on every corner”, he told investors, speaking after Bunged downgraded its forecast for full-year profits. However, he said that he was “optimistic that we are, if not at the bottom, very close to it.  “I think next year will be better for sure.”.
  •  UN flags growing industrial use of cereals, as it trims world grain stocks forecast
    The United Nations trimmed its forecast for world grain stocks even while raising its production estimate, citing growing industrial use of cereals – echoing comments from the International Grains Council. The UN food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, nudged higher by 1.1m tonnes to a record 2.613bn tonnes its forecast for 2017-18 world production of grains, including rice, wheat, and coarse grains such as barley, corn and sorghum. The revision reflected in the main a 2.7m-tonne upgrade to 752.8m tonnes in the estimate for the wheat harvest “an upward adjustment… driven by a larger-than-earlier anticipated harvest in the Russian Federation”, the FAO said.

Summary:

The USDA’s Weekly Export Sales report showed sales last week were strong for Soybeans, Soy products and Wheat. Corn on the other had reported number that were disappointing. The USDA’s weekly export sales report showed Corn with 811.4k metric tons sold in the week ending October 26 where trade estimates ranged from 0.8-1.1 million metric tons. Soybean sales came in at 1.967 million metric tons compared to trade estimates that ranged from 1.54-1.85 million metric tons. Weekly export sales for Wheat came in at 347.8k metric tons which was in line with trade expectations that ranged from 250-450k metric tons. Wheat sales were down 4 percent from last week.

Exporters made a sale of 1,356,360 metric tons of Corn for delivery to Mexico (a record one-day sale figure). The first shipment of 845,820mt will be shipped in 2017-18 while the remaining 510,540mt will be shipped during the 2018-19 marketing year.

Corn finished 2–2¼ cents higher today riding the strength from the Bean market and large export sale this morning. Soybean futures finished 7½-8¼ cents higher with the strong export sales boosting its efforts to rise. After reaching oversold levels, Wheat futures traded higher today as bargain hunting pushed prices higher. Wheat futures finished 2½-8¾ cents higher.