Headlines:
- Grain markets put weather risk back on
It seems markets may have been a bit hasty to take off weather risk over the previous session, as grain futures recouped some of their recent losses. Markets have been weighing the significance of last weekend’s storms all week, with prices surging on Monday on ideas of snow damage to wheat in the Plains, and disrupted plantings to corn in the Midwest. But some positive wheat yield numbers from Kansas went a long way to allay fears, and triggered a sell-off in wheat markets on Thursday, with corn prices also sharply down. “The euphoria Monday was probably a bit overdone, and exaggerated by the fact parts of the world were on May Day holiday with trade desks a little lighter staffed,” said Tregg Cronin, at Halo Commodities. But some of that risk was put back on going into the weekend, with ideas that there is still potential damage to be assessed.
Summary:
The eastern Corn Belt has received continual rainfall of 1” – 2” with over 2” in isolated areas. The rainfall in the eastern region was expected to come to an end today. The weather continues to be a concern for the trade especially with a weekend coming up. There is concern that if there’s any change in the forecast that it won’t take much rain to push farmers out of the fields field again causing delays again. The summer weather variable is still an unknown risk proposition and it appears unlikely that the trade will want to deepen their short side sentiment any further for some time. The Kansas Wheat Tour is all wrapped up and they pegged yields at about 46 bushels an acre. Although, participants seem to believe that the final number will be come in closer to 40 bushels an acre because of the recent frost damage last weekend.
