Fed Decision Imminent
We start off this economic day with Existing Home Sales at 9:00 A.M., EIA Energy Stocks at 9:30 A.M. and Dairy Product Sales at 2:00 P.M. Expectations are that the Fed will raise rates today and the initial reaction to the Stock Market is caution as Stocks seem to break on any mention of a rate hike, even though it is a positive that the Fed believes the economy is moving again. On the Corn front Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is seeking a fix to the 199A tax provision which was not part of the omnibus budget bill. The 199A provision gives farmers a tax incentive to sell their crops to co-ops over other types of businesses. Grassley was quoted, “Because this is very important we don’t put private elevator people in Iowa out of business and that probably would be happening under the mistake the Senate made when we wrote 199A”. Reported by Ken Anderson. In the overnight electronic session the May Corn is currently trading at 374 ½ which is unchanged. The trading range has been 375 ½ to 373 ¾. With all the tariff talk and duties that the EU will symbolically impose it will be important to have another good number in tomorrow’s Export Sales.
On the Ethanol front there were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. The April contract settled at 1.462. The market is currently showing 1 bid @ 1.471 and 2 offers @ 1.474. The May contracts Open Interest is creeping to 537 contracts while the April is declining to 905 contracts.
On the Crude Oil front last night’s API finally showed builds in Cushing, Oklahoma of 1.644 million barrels, if you can believe the number after so many draws in storage. Crude Stocks showed draws of 2.739 million barrels, Gasoline stocks had draws of 1.063 million barrels and Distillates showed draws of 1.926 million barrels. This is not good news for buying Diesel or filling up the car at the pump. Gas prices are expected to climb rather rapidly. The EIA Energy Stock will be released at 9:30 A.M and I will keep an eye on the Cushing, Oklahoma stocks because the surprise build there was the only thing that really caught my attention in yesterday’s data. In the overnight electronic session the May Crude Oil is currently trading at 6414 which is 60 points higher. The trading range has been 6430 to 6358.
On the Natural Gas front Old Man Winter is rearing his ugly head again. With rains coming over the Pacific, cold and snow across the Plains and Mid-West and another Nor’easter that just have to make those folks numb. The Natural Gas is still slow to react and if and when the spring weather ever gets here this market should tank even though we are an official net exporter. In the overnight electronic session the April Natural Gas is currently trading at 2.700 which is 2 ½ cents higher. The trading range has been 2.708 to 2.671.