Headlines:

  • ‘Downward spiral’ leads sugar, soy to fresh lows
    New York-traded raw sugar futures for July tumbled to a 13-month low, for a spot contract, of 14.73 cents a pound earlier, before recovering ground to close back above the 15.00-cents-a-pound mark, at 15.02 cents a pound, down 0.2% on the day. Continued worries over data showing a surprisingly strong start to May for Brazilian sugar output – besides a cut in the country’s fuel prices which, via ethanol, hurts values of the sweetener too – were blamed largely for the decline. But so was further weakness in the real, which traded 0.3% down against the dollar, so boosting the value in Brazilian terms of assets such as sugar, and soybeans, traded internationally in the greenback. “It seems to be a catalogue of woe for the sugar bulls,” said Tom Kujawa, co-head of the softs department at Sucden Financial.
  • ‘Important’ hedge fund data lift hopes for slowdown in soy selling
    Hopes grew of a slowdown in the selling which has driven soybean and soymeal futures to 14-month lows, after regulatory data showed hedge funds had already taken out a bigger-than-expected number of short bets. Managed money, a proxy for speculators, trimmed its net short position in futures and options in the top 13 US-traded agricultural commodities, from cocoa to cattle, by 7,988 contracts in the week to last Tuesday, analysis of data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulator shows.

Summary:

July Beans finished 14.50 cents lower today with both Corn and Wheat also falling sharply. The USDA Crop Progress report was delayed as a result of the Memorial Holiday. As investors await the report, weakness in the Brazilian currency has returned to plague US Corn and Soybean futures. July Corn and Wheat were both down 7.50 cents. Everything was selling off today despite reports of more rain coming at the end of the week. Crops in many areas are looking better than expected and emerged.

Today’s export inspections were mixed. The Corn number was strong, The Wheat number was okay and the Soybean number was weak. The Soybeans figure was the 2nd lowest total of the year and South America continues to dominate the space as the biggest shipper of Soybeans. The Wheat number was good but it still remains 57 million bushels behind the USDA pace with only one week left of data to report. It is safe to say that Wheat will fall short of the USDA number.