Grains Came Back From The Holiday Weekend in a Buying Mood

Grains came back from the holiday weekend in a buying mood with 2 to 5 cent gains going into the morning break. In outside markets, S&P futures and crude oil were sharply higher early in the night session, but had pared gains going into the morning trade.

The current lineup of ships to load soy and corn at Brazilian ports has grown to twice the number seen a year ago as excessive rains delayed loading and the weak currency boosts export sales. There are currently 163 ships waiting to load soy and corn at Brazilian ports, according to data from shipping agency Williams compiled by Reuters, with total grains volume of an estimated 9.73 MMT. At this time last year there were 66 ships waiting to load 4.1 MMT.

South America weather continues be widely favorable for crop development. Brazil weather during the weekend and that expected over the next couple of weeks will be good for most crop areas, but not the northeast where net drying is expected. Argentina weather will remain very good for its summer grain and oilseed crops.

This morning, USDA reported a fresh sale of 190,000 MT of corn to Columbia. Today at 11 am CDT, the NOPA crush estimate will be released. Analysts expect 155.267 million bushels, vs. NOPA's December figure of 157.711 million. In January 2015, NOPA processors crushed 162.675 million bushels.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela agreed to freeze their oil output at January levels providing other major producers follow suit, Qatar's energy minister said on Tuesday after a meeting of those countries' energy ministers. However, markets sold off on this news as there is growing skepticism that other countries will unilaterally follow suit.

The risk of trading futures, hedging, and speculating can be substantial. Grain Hedge is a dba of Foremost Trading LLC (NFA ID: 0307930)

—Kevin McNew