Headlines:
Trump Says Very Close to 12-Month Waiver for Ethanol in Gasoline
President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration is very close to granting a waiver that would allow the sale of gasoline containing 15% ethanol year-round. “I’m very close, I have to tell you, to pulling off something you have been looking forward to for many years and that’s the 12-month E15 waiver,” he said at a workforce event in Iowa, where farmers would get a boost by increasing the amount of ethanol, a biofuel typically made from corn, blended into gasoline.
Discount Not Discourse to Boost U.S. Soy Sales to EU
European Union imports of U.S. soybeans will remain strong for economic reasons with talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker giving them only a symbolic boost, European traders and analysts said. Trump told reporters after meeting Juncker on Wednesday that the EU would start, almost immediately, to buy a lot of soybeans. U.S. soybean exporters have been looking to expand sales in markets such as the EU after top buyer China imposed tariffs as part of a trade dispute with Washington. EU buyers have already been stepping up purchases, with U.S. supplies now available at a significant discount to exports from South America. “Since the price decline of U.S. soybeans in June 2018, the EU is anyway purchasing more soybeans from the United States for economic reasons and there are no EU import restrictions on U.S. soybeans which can be removed,” said Stefan Vogel, head of agricultural commodity markets research at Rabobank, a Dutch bank that specializes in lending to the agriculture sector. “I think the statements on the EU increasing purchases of soybeans from the United States are largely symbolic,” he added. U.S. export prices for soybeans are at least $20 a metric ton cheaper than from Brazil for August delivery in northern Europe, traders said. “It is not the European Commission that buys, but the industry, and traders who look for goods where they are the least expensive for their financial interests,” one European soybean trader said. “If U.S. soy is cheaper than the Brazilian it will be preferred.” DBV, an association of German farmers, said it welcomed de-escalation in the trade dispute but did not expect changes in soybean trade.
Summary:
Corn futures finished the day in positive territory but settled well off of its intraday highs. The nearby and deferred contract series traded in a 4 to 5 cent price range for the day. Weekly export sales came in at 13.3 MB. The lion share of export partners were Korea, Mexico and Israel. This week’s figures exceed the needed USDA pace but was well below last week’s figure of 25.0 MB. Reasonably strong export sales initially lifted soybeans higher with additional help from improving trade relations with the European Union and other world players. The absence of buying conviction lead to a surrender of all the day’s gain and small closing loss on the day. Weekly export sales came in at 19.77 MB which fell short of last week’s figure but was enough to meet the USDA needed weekly pace. Leading export partners for last week were Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands and Egypt. The wheat market traded lower finishing the day almost 10 cents in the red. Both profit taking and hedge pressure were largely to blame.
