Weekly Market Wrap-Up
Grain Market Commentary
Friday, September 20, 2019
by Paul Matthews, Account Representative, The Andersons
Markets kicked off Monday a touch weaker to start but strengthened as the day session wore on. The big news in commodities was the attack on a Saudi oil facility that had crude prices surging. The market will be watching closely for any harvest data that trickles in as well as weather to finish crops.
Markets Tuesday gave back Monday’s gains as the trade appears to be repositioning itself ahead of a quarterly report from the USDA on September 30th.
Wednesday started with a thinner trade with outside markets still very uncertain with back and forth trade behavior given multiple variables influencing values including harvest data, month-end stock report, Iranian oil, US/China trade, biofuels package, and chart technical moves.
Thursday saw another day trading with low volume and range-bound movement, however both beans and wheat showed some technical strength Wednesday that may help carry those markets through the balance of the week. Export sales data was reported as larger compared to last week based on buying from both Mexico and China, but still lag behind the average pace to reach the USDA estimates.
Friday continued to maintain more of the same low-level trading and finished sharply lower especially in soybeans as it appears the market took note of the President’s comments on Chinese trade late in the day. He was quoted as saying that the U.S. does not need to strike a trade deal before the election, also stating that he did not want a “partial deal” with Beijing. This caused November soybean futures to close below the 50-day moving average for the lowest trading in a week. Chinese officials changed their travel schedule which included Nebraska farm visits and were reported as heading back to China earlier than planned.
December corn opened the week at $3.72 and closed at $3.7075 a 1-cent decrease.
- Corn rating this week reported at 55% good to excellent, unchanged from last week.
November soybeans opened the week at $9.0325 and closed at $8.8275. A 20-cent increase.
- Soybean rating this week was down 1 point, reported at 54% good to excellent.
December wheat opened the week at $4.88 and closed at $4.8425. A 4-cent increase.
Stay tuned to andersonsgrain.com for the latest commodity market information.