TOP STORIES:
Corn Falls as Traders Brace for WASDE
Corn for March delivery fell 0.8% to $4.92 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Monday as some grains traders took profits ahead of tomorrow's WASDE report from the USDA.
CBOT grains futures shifted lower throughout the day after trading higher pre-market. "The bulls have scored massive profits since the December WASDE report and wanted to 'nail down' a modest portion of those gains amid the uncertainty of the final January Crop/December Stocks reports," said AgResource. Tomorrow's WASDE is scheduled to be released at noon.
Corn and Soybean Export Inspections Strong -- Market Talk
11:29 ET - Corn and soybean export inspections have reached the higher end of analyst expectations, according to the USDA's weekly report. Corn-export inspections totaled 1.13M metric tons this week, while soybean inspections totaled 1.78M tons. For both grains, Mexico was the primary destination, with 154,305 tons of corn being inspected and 145,971 tons of soybeans being inspected for export. Grain futures fall in CBOT trading, with corn down 0.7%, soybeans down 1% and wheat down 0.8%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
STORIES OF INTEREST:
Argentina Farmers Strike Over Corn Export Ban -- Market Talk
1044 ET - Argentine farm workers launched a strike on Monday over the government's decision to prohibit corn exports. After the farm unions announced the strike, the government said it would allow about 30,000t of corn to be exported per day. However union leaders said that was not enough to avert the 72-hour protest. "The strike continues," said Carlos Achetoni, head of the Federation of Argentine Agriculture. The government announced the measure in a bit to control local food prices, Teneo Intelligence notes. It says the government's "partial U-turn is unlikely to fix the damage of an ill-conceived and distortionary initiative." (ryan.dube@wsj.com; @duberyan)
Brazil Soybean Harvest Begins in Limited Areas, Crop Quality Good -- Market Talk
0723 ET - Brazilian farmers in a few areas have begun their soybean harvest, but at a slower pace than in previous years because of dry weather at the start of the season that delayed planting, according to agricultural consultancy AgRural. The delays were expected and the area harvested is still very small, the group said. Good rain and favorable temperatures during the growing season have left the crop in good shape in most parts of Brazil, and only parts of the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia and Piaui are having problems with dry weather, AgRural said. Those problems are unlikely to cause relevant declines in productivity, the consultancy said. AgRural has forecast a record soybean crop of 131.7 million metric tons for the 2020-2021 growing season currently underway. (jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com)
THE MARKETS:
Hogs Slide as China Rebounds From Swine Fever -- Market Talk
15:10 ET - Livestock futures trading on the CME end lower, with most-active cattle futures finishing down 0.9% at $1.134 per pound and lean hog futures closing down 0.3% at 68.475 cents per pound. For hogs, the downward momentum appears to be similar to the decline seen in Chinese pork futures. "Chinese pork values have been under considerable pressure in recent sessions," says Karl Setzer of AgriVisor, adding that those prices have dropped 12% since last Friday. "This coincides with the build China has seen to its pork supply as the country rebounds from the African Swine Fever outbreak." (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-11-21 1728ET
