Grains Slightly Weaker in Overnight Trade

Grains were unchanged to slightly weaker in overnight trade while in outside markets equity futures tried to recover some of yesterday’s sharp losses while crude oil continued to dip lower.

Yesterday, Argentina's government said they were considering postponing a tax cut planned for next year on soy exports, as a recession in Latin America's third-largest economy eats into fiscal revenue. Also, Argentine farmers are expected to harvest at least 15 MMT of wheat in the 2016/17 crop year versus 11.3 in the previous season. Wheat planting in Argentina expanded dramatically when President Mauricio Macri eliminated export taxes soon after his December inauguration.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture is seeking to buy a total of 149,231 tonnes of food quality wheat from the United States, Canada and Australia in a regular tender that will close late on Thursday.

The US has issued a challenge with the WTO for China's price supports for domestic production of rice, wheat and corn. The US Trade Representative's office said China's "market price support" for these grains was estimated to be nearly $100 billion above the WTO limits and constitutes an artificial government incentive for Chinese farmers to increase output.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is reporting a 1.4-million-build in US crude oil inventory over last week—bursting the bubble created the week before when official data showed the biggest draw on inventory in a century. Still, the build is much lower than expectations of a 4-million-barrel build, in part because the release of shut-in oil following a Gulf of Mexico hurricane.

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

—Kevin McNew