Headlines:

  • USDA Prospective plantings report will be out Thursday, March 29th
  • Perdue Says He Stands With the RFS; Grassley Says Schooling Is Needed
    A farm convention audience cheered Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue as he declared his unequivocal support for biofuels. His speech came just a day after he participated in a White House discussion of possible revisions to the Renewable Fuel Standard. Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the foremost Senate proponent of corn ethanol, later told reporters that Perdue needs some additional grounding in the issue. “I think he spoke out very strongly for ethanol yesterday,” said Grassley, referring to the meeting of President Trump, administration leaders, and four Republican senators at the center of the dispute over the RFS. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has suggested putting a price cap on RINs, the credits that refiners must buy to show compliance with the RFS if they cannot blend enough ethanol and biodiesel into car and truck fuel. Cruz and other oil-state senators blame the recent bankruptcy of a Philadelphia refinery on the expense of buying RINs.
  • Trump Wades Deeper Into Biofuel Debate With Second Meeting
    U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday will gather rivals from the oil and corn industries for the second time this week as the administration seeks elusive common ground on reforms to the nation’s controversial biofuels law. The meetings come amid rising concern in the White House over the current state of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law requiring refiners to mix biofuels such as corn-based ethanol into their fuel that has increasingly divided two of Trump’s most important constituencies. Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), a refining company in the key electoral state of Pennsylvania, last month blamed the regulation for its bankruptcy.

 

Summary:

Crude Oil was down big intraday but managed to recover most of the day’s losses by the time the market closed. The last three days the July contract retraced the classic 61.8% of the February 9 to February 26 advance. A break out beyond tomorrow’s high tomorrow could suggest a return to strength for Crude.

Grain and Oilseed futures rallied on fund buying today while Oval Office plans for tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum seemed to pressure the US Stock market. May Corn rallied 4.25 cents, May Beans reached double digit gains of 12 cents and May Wheat futures was up 21 cents. The USDA announced new Soybean export sales outside of the weekly export sales of 120k metric tons of soybeans for delivery to China. Half of the total was for delivery during the 2017-18 marketing year and the other half for the 2018-19 marketing year. Additionally, export sales of 126k metric tons of Soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations was reported. Half for delivery during the 2017-18 marketing year and the other half for the 2018-19 marking year.