Grains Slight Spike on Weather
At 7:30 A.M. we kickoff the day with Advanced Durable Goods, Export Sales and Initial Jobless Claims. At 9:30 A.M. we have the weekly EIA Gas Storage. On the corn front we will ponder Monday’s Crop Progress and add this morning’s Export Sales. Weather could as well add premium to the market. Trade estimates on corn are 200,000-400,000 tonnes vs. last year 200k to 500k and a week ago 212.070 tonnes vs. a week ago last year 466,489. In the overnight electronic session the September corn is currently trading at 375 ¾ which is 3 cents higher. The trading range has been 376 ¼ to 373.
On the Ethanol front the Open Interest in the August contract is down to 74 contracts so we will switch our focus to the September contract that is currently last at 1.550. The trading range has been 1.550 to 1.540 with Estimated Volume at 13 contracts and Open Interest at 907 contracts.
On the Crude Oil front the Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) is the latest leading oil company to cut Capital Spending which is more bullish news. We also have sanctions on Venezuela which is not as bullish because they could not turn the spigots of oil out of the ground with the unrest and riots plaguing that country after years of Socialist rule and all monies going into the late Hugo Chavez and George Soros. I still would like to see a close above $49 a barrel and ideally above $50 a barrel heading into this weekend with two trading sessions to accomplish that feat. In the overnight electronic session the September crude oil is currently trading at 4847 which is 28 points lower. The trading range has been 4894 to 4836.
On the Natural Gas front the August contract Last Trading Day so don’t wait trying to beat the clock until your flirting expiration to liquidate or rollover. We also have the weekly EIA Gas Storage and the Thomson Reuters poll with 24 analysts participating expect injection builds smaller than normal but somewhat expected at these price levels. The analysts forecast injections anywhere from 17 bcf to 32 bcf with the median increase of 24-25 bcf. The estimates compare to last week’s build of 28 bcf, the one year of 20 bcf and the five-year average of an increase of 47bcf. In the overnight electronic session the September Natural Gas is currently trading at 2.922 which is .008 of a cent higher. The trading range has been 2.924 to 2.898.