Good Morning!
Unseasonable warm weather in December is breaking records back to the 1800’s or the last time the Cub’s won a World Series. Just joking folks but this could bring back Global Warming rioters or protesters that did not even have the data dating back to 1950.
Speaking of weather concerns, the corn market is concerned about South America’s weather pattern and how warm this El Nino winter will affect plantings. It is amazing being in December and already concerned about plantings and how healthy and fertile the soil will be as not to get diseased without a major freeze to quell bugs from manifesting to larger numbers. In the overnight electronic session the March corn is currently trading at 378 ½, which is 3 ¼ cents higher. The trading range has been 378 ¾ to 374 ½ so far. This week’s FED announcement is adding drama to this light volume Christmas holiday market.
On the Ethanol front the January contract posted a trade at 1.441, which is .014 of a cent lower and the February contract posted a trade at 1.453 which is .015 of a cent lower. This market is not showing any effectiveness on cost or the environment.
On the crude oil front the market continues to trade in a chop to lower pattern. I still remain long-term bullish. In the overnight electronic session the January crude oil is currently trading at 3531, which is 31 points lower. The trading range has been 3572 to 3453 so far in the early going. Volume and geo-political risks should make this an interesting Monday.
On the natural gas front the market is getting buried again. It looks like it will test a golden buy area of $180 level, which may have bears jump ship and could create a short-covering rally. In the overnight electronic session the January contract is currently trading at 1.872, which is 11.8 cents lower. The trading range has been 1.923 to 1.862 so far. Light volume could scare bullish speculators away. You have to ask yourself, How much downside is left in this market.