Headlines:
- Nearly 40% of Rural Americans Lack Access to High-Speed Internet
Most Americans take access to fast internet connections for granted, and in fact, only 4% of urban residents lack that access, says the Wall Street Journal, citing FCC data. In rural America, however, nearly four of every 10 people cannot get broadband, a disadvantage when commerce and public services are often routed digitally. “In many rural communities, where available broadband speed and capacity barely surpass old-fashioned dial-up connections, residents sacrifice not only their online pastimes but also chances at a better living,” says the Journal. Experts say it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to supply up-to-date broadband throughout the country, “an expense neither government, industry, nor consumers has been willing to pay.
- CFTC Fines U.S. Cattle Futures Traders $5 Million
CHICAGO, June 21 (Reuters) – U.S. futures regulators fined a Memphis trading firm and three associates $5 million on Wednesday for using a manipulative tactic in CME Group Inc.’s cattle futures, a market grappling with extreme volatility. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it penalized McVean Trading & Investments $1.5 million and its chairman, Charles Dow McVean, $2 million under a settlement deal after an investigation. President Michael Wharton was fined $1 million and Samuel Gilmore, a consultant to the firm, was fined $500,000. McVean and Wharton distorted other traders’ views of the cattle market in 2012 and 2013 by secretly using cattle feed yards as straw purchasers for hundreds of long futures contracts, according to the CFTC. This enabled them to control substantial portions of the market without disclosing that control, the agency said. Cattle futures in recent years have been under scrutiny by the CFTC, CME, traders, and farmers due to volatile price swings. CME has adjusted the contract to improve performance and plans to make more changes. McVean Trading said in a statement that the settlement with the CFTC did not impact its clients or capital and that it was glad to resolve the investigation. Neither the firm nor the individuals admitted or denied the CFTC’s findings. McVean and Wharton have been trading live cattle futures for decades, according to the CFTC. They “intentionally or recklessly used a manipulative or deceptive device to inject false information into the market, which had the potential to affect the live cattle futures,” the CFTC said.
Summary:
It was a rough go across the board today. Wheat and Soybean finished the day giving up close to double digit losses. Corn was essentially flat giving up 2 ticks when the dust settled. Wheat gave back yesterday’s gains but the losses in Wheat are not a total surprise. Wheat has been trading up for the last 13 trading days and the last 8 buyer’s bars. Both of these number are part of the Fibonacci sequence of number leading us to anticipate a potential correction soon. Soybean was overbought and fired off a sell signal yesterday and could very well make its way down to test the recent May 31st low. Corn has fallen back inside of the trading range that had held it captive for most of this year. It only recently broke out to give us the mid-June rally that we had been calling for. It reached resistance and fell back down again.
The news coming out of South America has been putting pressure on the Bean markets in particular with rumors of Chinese business sourcing Beans from South America. Additionally, Argentine port workers are no longer on the picket line. Crude Oil continues to melt and the US Dollar has found some short term strength. All of this coming together has made it a bit tough on the US grain markets.
