Attache Raises China's Corn Import Projection | FTT Audio Oct. 6, 2021
Corn futures held within the upper end of Tuesday’s trading range overnight and futures are currently 1 to 2 cents higher. Soybean futures saw similar action overnight and futures are currently up 3 cents. Winter wheat futures saw two-sided trade overnight, but most contracts are currently up 2 to 3 cents. Spring wheat has rallied 5 to 7 cents. Crude oil futures hit a new seven-year high overnight, but the market is currently facing light pressure. The U.S. dollar index surged overnight.
A U.S. ag attaché in China raised its estimate for China’s 2020-21 corn imports to 30 MMT, but it expects the country’s corn buying to slow by a third to 20 MMT in 2021-22.
Two industry officials cited by Reuters project India’s wheat exports could quadruple from year-ago levels to an eight-year high of around 4.2 MMT this year. The country has already shipped 3.07 MMT of the grain in the first eight months of the year, which is a dramatic 887% from last year.
President Joe Biden said it is a “real possibility” that Senate Democrats could seek to revise the chamber’s filibuster rules to overcome a Republican blockade on raising the debt ceiling. When asked about Democrats utilizing the "nuclear option" to prevent Republicans from filibustering to raise the debt limit, Biden said, “Oh, I think that’s a real possibility.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced it will start accepting public comments Oct. 12 on whether to reinstate product exclusions relative to tariffs imposed on billions of dollars of Chinese goods. It will accept comments through Dec. 1.
Spending on tests to detect Covid-19 soared in Wuhan, China, several months before the first official reporting of Covid-19 cases, suggesting the virus was already circulating in communities during the northern summer in 2019 before it was made public by Beijing, according to research by Australian cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0.
IHS Markit's tracking estimate for U.S. third-quarter gross domestic product fell to 1.5% from 2.2% last week. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model is now down to 1.3%. Over the summer, the Wall Street Journal’s Economic Forecasting Survey projected a seasonally adjusted annual pace of growth around 7% for the third quarter.
President Biden yesterday said that he has confidence in Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, hours after Sen. Elizabeth Warren assailed the central bank and its leader on the floor of the Senate and in television interviews.
Bayer AG has won its first trial regarding claims its glyphosate-based Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. A California jury found the herbicide was not a substantial cause of a child’s rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Cattle futures enjoyed some modest buying on Tuesday, but the trend of the market remains to the downside.
Pork packing margins have climbed notably in recent weeks, with HedgersEdge.com estimating them at $66.80 per head as of Tuesday, up $8.60 from the week prior. Nevertheless, this week’s kill is running 9,000 head under week-ago and 34,000 head under year-ago.
