Headlines:

  • Corn futures fall back, as fund buying dries up
    Corn futures tumble from the three-week top of the previous session, after speculators finished winding up long-corn spreads, and profit taking developed. “The buy corn/sell soybean spread trading pretty well ran its course Friday and yesterday and that trade is correcting today,” said Darrell Holaday, at Country Futures. In addition to spread-unravelling, prices also got some support on Monday from ideas that rains in the US could disrupt fieldwork in the country’s corn belt.
  • Sugar prices break new lows as Brazil’s cane crush season opens
    Sugar prices are plumbing new lows, as the Brazilian harvest starts up, with expectations that mills will increase production of the sweetener at the expense of ethanol this season. The season official started up on April, and the pace of crushing and sugar production has already been rapid, with good weather expected for cane crushing this month. May raw sugar futures in New York are plumbing 11-month lows, at 16.29 cents a bushel.

Summary:

No President in recent history (this early in his term) has dominated the headlines as much as our current President. Economic optimism is at record levels and the Agricultural Industry is not immune to the initiatives that have been proposed by the new President. Now that the first quarter of the year is in the rearview mirror, we look ahead to what the current landscape may bring. As was promised, the President has already withdrawn the US from Trans-Pacific Partnership. We have not heard any rumblings of its progress but on the horizon still is the negotiation the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The current multilateral agreements make it more challenging to maintain autonomous leverage and moving to a bilateral agreement format may serve us well as far as negotiating is concerned. No one really knows how things will shake out. Hopefully when the dust settles all participants will be in a better place.

Corn finished bit lower today and both Beans and Wheat settled flat (ranging from about 0 to 3 ticks of change). The markets have had ample time to digest the quarterly report from Friday, the advances in Corn and Wheat have tapered off a bit. A poor export showing on the part of Beans and a stronger US dollar put a lid on upside follow through today.