Headlines:

  • Ag markets will not trade next week on Friday, April 14th in observance of the Good Friday Holiday
  • US officials cautious on prospects for EU wheat export revival
    European Union wheat exports will not recover as strongly in 2017-18 as some commentators imagine, despite better harvest prospects – although shipments this season will beat expectations, US officials said. A report from US Department of Agriculture bureau – offering the first glimpse of what the world’s most important agricultural commodity forecaster is thinking on next season’s EU grains balance sheet from – pegged the bloc’s overall wheat exports at 29.0m tonnes. That would remain well below the levels, as high as 35.4m tonnes in 2014-15, which drove the EU to top rank among world wheat exporters – before last year’s disastrous French harvest, hurt by summer rains, dented supplies in the bloc’s top producing country. The forecast is also below the 30.4m-tonne figure that the European Commission sees the EU achieving in wheat exports next season, which starts in July. The International Grains Council forecasts EU wheat exports recovering in 2017-18 to 30.0m tonnes.
  • Technical selling sends cocoa futures tumbling
    Cocoa futures made a leg lower, as a wave of technical selling pushed prices back below the $2,000 a tonne level. The previous session bought bearish news, in the form of an announcement by the IMF that Cote D’Ivoire will be given more leeway in this year’s budget. The relaxing of the deficit ceiling for the government of Cote D’Ivoire will allow further investment in the country’s key cocoa industry.

Summary:

Strong weekly export sales were not enough to pull the markets higher. Additionally, traders woke up to news of Syrian air strikes that were deployed by the US and the initial response was softer prices for the grain and oil seed markets. The downside react was tempered as the day progressed with Corn, Wheat and Beans all settling well off of their intraday lows. The US led attack was in response to the release of deadly gas poisoning that the US sited was initiated by the Syrian government. The Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting this week but the summit was overshadowed some by the Syrian events. The US President was looking to raise concerns over China’s current trade practices and to solicit the aid of China’s President in reigning in North Korea. Next week we are facing a shortened trading session because of the grain markets will be closed on Good Friday. Traders have by and large either ignored or moved on from the air strike news and have returned their focus on supply and demand issues ahead. The three markets settled very close to being flat on the day.