Evening Report | June 7, 2021

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Corn condition ratings drop more than expected… As of Sunday, USDA rated 72% of the U.S. corn crop as “good” to “excellent,” down four points from the previous week. Traders polled by Reuters expected condition ratings to drop two points. The portion of crop rated “poor” to “very poor” increased a point to 5%.

 

This week

Last week

Year-ago

Very poor

1

1

1

Poor

4

3

3

Fair

23

20

21

Good

58

62

60

Excellent

14

14

15

Amid the warmer temps last week, corn emergence advanced nine points to 90%, eight points ahead of the five-year average. Of the top 18 producing states, corn emergence is behind average in only Colorado at 68% (81% for the five-year average), Kansas at 74% (83%) and Texas at 90% (91%).

 

Soybean planting into the home stretch, more than three-quarters of the crop emerged… Soybean planting pushed to 90% nationally as of June 6, according to USDA. That was 11 points ahead of the five-year average. Of the top 18 producing states only Louisiana is behind its average.

Soybean emergence jumped 14 points to 76%. That was 17 points ahead of the five-year average. As would be expected given the planting pace, only Louisiana is behind the five-year average emergence.

USDA’s initial soybean crop condition ratings pegged 67% of the crop as “good” to “excellent,” three point below what traders expected and five points lower than last year at this point. USDA rated 6% of the crop as “poor” to “very poor.”  

 

This week

Last week

Year-ago

Very poor

1

NA

1

Poor

5

NA

3

Fair

27

NA

24

Good

57

NA

60

Excellent

10

NA

12

 

Cotton condition ratings improve… USDA rated 46% of the U.S. cotton crop as “good” to “excellent,” up three points from the previous week. The portion of crop rated “poor” to “very poor” dropped four points to 15%.

 

This week

Last week

Year-ago

Very poor

1

1

2

Poor

14

18

11

Fair

39

38

44

Good

41

38

36

Excellent

5

5

7

 

Cotton planting is now seven points behind the five-year average at 71% complete. Texas has seeded only 60% of its cotton versus 72% for the five-year average.

Cotton emergence advanced only three points over the past week to 9%. That was two points behind average for the first week of June.

 

Spring wheat conditions drop more than expected… U.S. spring wheat conditions continue to deteriorate amid drought in the Northern Plains. As of Sunday, USDA rated 38% of the crop as “good” to “excellent,” down five points from the previous week. Traders expected 40% of the crop to be rated in the top two categories. USDA rated 25% of the crop as “poor” to “very poor,” up five points from the previous week. In the top producing state of North Dakota, 32% of the crop is rated in the top two categories and 29% is put in the bottom two.

 

This week

Last week

Year-ago

Very poor

9

4

0

Poor

16

16

1

Fair

37

37

17

Good

35

39

72

Excellent

3

4

10


Spring wheat emergence stood at 90% as of Sunday, four points ahead of the five-year average.

 

Winter wheat barely underway… USDA says 2% of the U.S. winter wheat crop was harvested as of Sunday, five points behind average. In the Southern Plains, Texas has cut 20% of its crop (half of the five-year average) and Oklahoma is at 2% (17% on average).

 

This week

Last week

Year-ago

Very poor

5

6

7

Poor

13

13

12

Fair

32

33

30

Good

42

40

42

Excellent

8

8

9

 

As the winter wheat crop approaches harvest, the condition continues to improve slightly, which is typical. USDA rated 50% of the crop as “good” to “excellent,” up two points from the previous week.

 

Lawmakers tell USDA: Speed up Covid aid as promised… Seventeen senators and 41 House members from both parties called on USDA to speed rulemaking for distributing Covid-19 aid approved in December to poultry farmers who raise company-owned birds under contract. Contract growers, who raise chickens for poultry processing companies, have not yet received federal assistance during the pandemic. Many contract chicken growers suffered substantial losses when processing facilities were forced to reduce or suspend production during the pandemic threatening many smaller and family-owned farms. USDA has also suspended promised payments to contract hog producers.

 

Tai: U.S./China trade relationship marked by ‘significant imbalance’… The U.S./China trade relationship is one that has “significant imbalance,” according to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. “There are parts of this trade relationship that are unhealthy and have over time been damaging in some very important ways to the U.S. economy,” Tai told reporters over the weekend ahead of a virtual meeting between trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum when asked whether the U.S. was going to maintain the Phase 1 agreement. “It’s a relationship in trade that has been marked by significant imbalance — that is in terms of performance, but also in terms of opportunity and openness of our markets to each other,” Tai stated. “The United States is committed to doing everything we can to bring balance back to the U.S./China trade relationship.”

China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao countered that his country is continuing to open up its economy despite the challenges of the pandemic, listing several areas in which it had reduced controls on foreign investment and trade. Further, he also noted that China was “favorably considering” joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the updated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that former President Donald Trump pulled out of three days into his presidency.

 

U.S. retrieves millions paid to Colonial Pipeline hackersU.S. law-enforcement officials said they had recovered millions of dollars in digital currency paid to the hackers who hit Colonial Pipeline with a ransomware attack last month, a strike that prompted the shutdown of the main conduit for gasoline and diesel fuel to the U.S. East Coast. Investigators seized nearly 64 bitcoin, valued at roughly $2.3 million, that were allegedly the proceeds from the ransom hack.

On Monday, investigators obtained a warrant from a magistrate judge in northern California enabling authorities to work with Colonial Pipeline to capture the bitcoin from the virtual wallet linked to the hacking group. Officials indicated they intended to try more frequently to recover funds paid to ransomware operators to disincentivize the activity.

The two ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline and JBS, that are believed to have originated in Russia, will be at the top of the list of topics to discuss when President Joe Biden meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16.

 

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