Headlines:

  • France has elected 39 year-old Emmanuel macron as its next president. Macron easily defeated Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election by about 30 %. Macron has promised to strengthen ties with the EU, loosen labor rules and make France more competitive globally.
  • Fund data reflected in strong softs, weak grains
    The last will be the first, and the first last. That is, for a pretty good idea of how agricultural commodity futures performed on Monday, all that was needed was a glance at the, significant, changes in speculative position, as revealed in data late last week. In grains, in which the data showed hedge funds turned less bearish for the first time since mid-February (in the week to last Tuesday), ideas that short-covering might only have created more scope for fresh short bets appeared justified.
  • Hedge funds ‘may turn sellers’ in wheat. But will sugar get back in favor?
    The US snowstorms which prompted fears of losses of up to 4m tonnes in output prompted a deep cut in hedge fund bets in wheat – in a move that could create scope for fresh selling, after damage estimates waned. However, in soft commodities, selling continued for a 10th successive week, the longest such spree on record, with hedge funds turning net short on sugar for the first time since 2015. Managed money, a proxy for speculators, cut its net short position in futures and options in the top 13 US-traded agricultural commodities, from soybeans to sugar, by 41,965 contracts in the week to last Tuesday, analysis of data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulator shows. The cut in the net short – the extent to which short holdings, which profit when values fall, exceed long bets, which benefit when prices gain – represented the first turn bullish in positioning since mid-February. And it was led by grains, in which hedge funds cut their net short by more than 72,000 lots, after US storms which damaged winter wheat crops, and slowed plantings of spring crops, notably corn, enhancing the wetness which has hampered fieldwork.

 

Summary:

The farm markets started and remain lower all day today. Corn gave up about 4 cents on average across its contracts, Beans about 7 cents on average and Wheat about 8 cents. The prospect of improving weather for the Midwest planting progress set the stage for the price action today and traders are also eagerly awaiting the results from Wednesday’s WASDE report. Traders keep talking about the wet weather in the east and the delays in planting but so far that has not been enough to bring buyers to the table yet. Soybean inspections were the lowest of the marketing year. The Wheat number was strong coming in at 615k tons eclipsing trade expectations but there is not much time left in the marketing year.