TOP STORIES:
Soybeans Rise in Reaction to Higher Palm Oil Futures
Soybeans for November delivery rose 2.2% to $10.44 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday, in response to an uptick to Malaysian palm oil futures overnight.
Corn for December delivery rose 1.5% to $3.85 a bushel.
Wheat for December delivery fell 1.5% to $5.92 3/4 a bushel.
STORIES OF INTEREST:
Grain Stocks a Focus in Friday's Wasde Report -- Market Talk
14:24 ET - One main focus for Friday's Wasde report by the USDA is by how much the agency will mark down its expectations for grain inventories in the 2020/21 marketing year. Because the USDA made a sizable cut to its projections for 2019/20 grain inventories, traders believe that 2020/21 inventories will drop as well. "It's almost a given that US corn/bean stocks are going to come down on Friday," Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives says. "The tricky part is figuring out what are bullish/bearish numbers considering the recent price gains that we've seen." A decline of 100M soybean bushels and 400M corn bushels is needed to keep current momentum in grains futures going, Bergman says. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
Hurricane Expected to Complicate Grain Exports -- Market Talk
13:08 ET - Hurricane Delta, which is progressing through the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall in Louisiana by Sunday, could affect grain exports leaving from New Orleans. "Exporters are quickly loading as many ships as possible, but will abandon those operations to get ships back out to the Gulf and out of harm's way late week," Arlan Suderman of StoneX says. "Barges moving south will be held up river until the hurricane passes. Damage will then be assessed in the New Orleans area, before operations resume." Grain-export inspections reported by the USDA yesterday were strong, led by soybean inspections, which totaled 1.67M metric tons this week. Meanwhile, wheat inspections totaled 643,671 tons and corn inspections totaled 863,995 tons. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
Harvest Progress Expected to Eventually Pressure Prices -- Market Talk
11:54 ET - Grain futures are trading higher on the CBOT Tuesday, even with yesterday's crop progress report from the USDA confirming that corn and soybean harvests were progressing faster than the average pace of the past five years. However, grain futures are expected to eventually succumb to the pressure of a healthy harvest season. "While one may not suspect it via the current price action, harvest is in full swing, and the weather outlook would appear to promise clear sailing ahead," says Dan Hueber of the Hueber Report. Friday's WASDE report from the USDA is expected to be a moving factor for futures short-term, but traders are expected to eventually shift their attention back to harvest data. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com, @kirkmaltais)
THE MARKETS:
Hog Futures Finish 2% Higher -- Market Talk
15:24 ET - Lean hog futures trading on the CME finished up 2% to 63.875 cents per pound. Driving futures higher is a less-than-expected slaughter figure projected for this week, says Dennis Smith of Archer Financials. "The weekly kill is projected to come in at 2.685 million pigs, up about 3% from last week but unchanged from last year," says Smith. "The hog & pig [report] suggested the kill for this week should run from up 6% to up 10% from last year." Meanwhile, the live cattle contract closed trading Tuesday up 0.2% to $1.1195 per pound. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-06-20 1727ET
