Tropical Disturbance Nine is churning in the Gulf and getting very close to where the National Hurricane Center is predicting a boomerang effect with the Florida Panhandle and West Coast directly in the forecasted path. Yesterday’s big selloff in the Crude Oil was due to the surprisingly high Consumer Confidence number with a reading of 101/1 from a revised 96.7 while economists and the street were looking for a rise to 97.0. That rallied the U.S. dollar and raised chatter that the FED may hike Interest Rates at the next FOMC meeting scheduled for September 20 and 21. This was indeed a rally killer to the commodity sector and when the Consumer Confidence was released Crude was trading at or near the highs of the day. In the overnight electronic session the October Crude Oil is currently trading at 4597, which is 38 points lower. The trading range has been 4641 to 4575
On the Natural Gas front the market is trading damage control or Hurry up and wait to see what damage #9 will cause. It has already caused disruption on oil rigs and shipping and the guess is where it will make landfall which is currently late Thursday. In the overnight electronic session the October Natural Gas is currently trading at 2.855, which is .028 cents higher. The trading range has been 2.858 to 2.822.
On the Corn front the higher U.S. dollar was not good news for Grain traders looking for support and a potential pop in the market. Volume still is light and we may have late rollovers today with First Notice Day on all September Grains. In the overnight electronic session the December Corn is currently trading at 315 ½, which is ¼ of a cent lower. The trading range has been 317 to 315 1/4.
On the Ethanol front there were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. Weekly inventories are on tap today and weak Corn prices motivated cheaper prices in Ethanol production. The September contract settled at 1.434 and is currently showing 1 bid @ 1.420 and no offers as we close in on expiration in this market.