Headlines:
- Cargill profits fall, amid ‘diminishing trading opportunities’
Cargill stressed its drive to expand down the food chain, and into more sophisticated feed additives, as it unveiled its first fall in underlying profits in more than a year, undermined by “diminished volatility” in commodities trading. The agricultural commodities merchant – with Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Louis Dreyfus one of the “ABCD” group of sector giants – reported that unveiled more than $1bn in acquisitions, joint ventures and infrastructure investments during the September-to-November quarter, in a drive to boost its offering to customers. “We are reinvesting in ways that enable our teams to achieve more for our customers,” said David MacLennan, the Cargill chairman and chief executive. “We are building businesses today that will provide our customers and consumers with the products and solutions they are seeking tomorrow.”
- Green Pool lifts forecast for world sugar supplies again, to 15-year high
Green Pool hinted at the potential for sugar price weakness as it lifted to a 15-year high its forecast for the extent of supplies of the sweetener, citing strong production prospects in the likes of India and Thailand. The Australian-based analysis group raised by 629,000 tonnes to 10.43m tonnes its forecast for the world sugar production surplus in 2017-18 – while reducing by 664,000 tonnes to 1.11m tonnes its estimate for the output shortfall last season. The impact of the revisions brought a watershed boost to inventory expectations, with Green Pool saying that “our current estimate for the surplus for 2017-18 is now more than the sum of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 deficits”. And – when compared with consumption, to form the stocks-to-use ratio closely watched as an indication of pricing potential – the group foresaw the loosest supplies in 15 years. The revisions raise “our estimate of global stocks-to-use from 43.2% to 48.4%, its highest level since 2002-03”.
Summary:
Corn started the day with strength in concert with the Wheat giving it a boost. Given the run over the past two weeks in the Wheat complex some profit taking set in as the day progressed cancelling out much of the earlier gains. Corn finished the day close to break even giving up 1-3 ticks across the board. Wheat was 1 to 6 ticks higher at the close. Continued short covering because of cold weather in the plains has persisted and has been keeping Wheat afloat. The deep freeze in the Midwest is likely doing significant damage to winter wheat crops that lack a protective layer of snow, according to analysts and meteorologists. Soybean finished the day in positive territory rising 3 ¾ to 4 ½ cents. Continued weather concern in South America (particularly in Argentina) was perhaps the main factor in driving prices higher. Argentine Soybean are anticipating limited yields because of dry weather forecasted for the next 10 days.
