Lots of red in the contracts of interest section this week. Markets plunged quite a bit this week, largely in response to poor planting progress and the announcement of new reenacted/new tariffs on Chinese goods, which we’ll talk about in ‘It Depends’. Dec. Corn is down approximately 1.22% from the week opening and down 7.92% from its four-month high of $4.04/bu. on February 25. Seasonal trends have corn rising around 70% of years during this period, and slowed planting would normally support that, however high carryover and continued trade tensions seem to be dampening those fundamental signals.
August and May Feeder contracts have fallen over the last three weeks. The Aug. Feeder contract fell from a recent peak of $161.35/cwt. to close today at $144.30/cwt. a three-week decline of 10.55%.
Production report forecasts vary widely, so this last bit of trading in the post-production report period prior to trading close could be volatile depending on where those actual reported numbers wind up. High frequency trading on these numbers could lead to big swings.
Next Week: Next week does not hold many reports that are typical ‘market movers’, however the Census: Congressional District Rankings from NASS will be published on Friday. This report is just what it sounds like; a ranking of U.S. Congressional districts in different categories by their production amount, receipts, land area devoted to cropping, etc.
Important Dates:
- May 10, 2019 – Next deadline to apply for CSP through NRCS
- May 17, 2019 – Census: Congressional District Rankings, NASS
- September 2019 – FSA will open ARC/PLC election for the 2019 and 2020 crop year
In the News:
- CME GROUP – U.S. – China Trade War: The Perils of Escalation
- Southwest Farm Press – Mandatory RFID required by 2023
- Southwest Farm Press – Texas corn off to good start