Good Morning!
We kickoff the day with Jobless Claims at 7:30 A.M., New Home Sales at 9:00 A.M., API Energy Stocks at 10:00 A.M. and Dairy Product Sales at 2:00 P.M. With China talks on trade moving forward crazy weather is putting Corn plantings in doubt according to Reuters News. Early winter storms caused farmers to abandon late fieldwork necessary to seed the yellow grain in the spring. This will have farmers devote more acreage to Soybeans next year. We have a wildcard in play with this news as US-Sino trade talks continue to trudge further will include Soybeans and at our prices could be very attractive. In the overnight electronic session the March Corn is currently trading at 376 ½, which is 3 ¼ cents higher. The trading range has been 376 ½ to 373 ¼.
On the Ethanol front we had activity in the January, February and March contracts in the overnight electronic session. With Open Interest down to 506 contracts in the January contract we will shift our focus to the February contract that has 1,838 open contracts. The Feb posted a trade at 1.280 which is unchanged with 13 contracts traded.
On the Crude Oil front the market looks to be bottoming but with all the unprecedented black swan events hitting the market at once, which makes investors not only think but blink. In the overnight electronic session the February Crude Oil is currently trading at 4548, which is 74 points lower. The trading range has been 4670 to 4492.
On the Natural Gas front today is the Last Trading Day for the January contract. Monster weather advisories from the West, Plains and East. The Mid-West has a temporary reprieve until tomorrow when old man winter strikes. In the overnight electronic session the February Natural Gas is currently trading at 3.413, which is 4 ½ cents lower. The trading range has been 3.552 to 3.359.
Have a Great Trading Day!