The Russian Saudi agreement on a production freeze woke other producers up. OPEC President Mohammed al-Sadi is meeting in Tehran with ministers from Iran, Venezuela and Iraq. The market is expecting that an agreement will be reached to ease the production so they will have more revenue versus market share by cutting output. In the overnight electronic session the March Crude Oil is currently trading at 2969 which is 65 points higher. The trading range has been 2994 to 2873 so far. The fact that these oil producing countries are meeting has put a bullish spin on this oversold and oversupplied market. Later today we will have API Energy Stocks report.
On the ethanol front very quiet trade as the markets focus on events unfolding with today’s OPEC meeting. The March contract settled at 1.380 and is currently showing 1 bid at 1.372 and 1 offer at 1.399.
On the natural gas front the March contract is currently trading at 1.928 which is two and a half cents higher. The trading range has been 1.937 to 1.910 so far. The market seems to want to form a bottoming formation at these cheap levels.
On the corn front we had very quiet trade in the overnight electronic session. The March contract is currently trading at 362 ½ which is a ½ of a cent lower. The trading range has been 363 to 362 ¼. We are still focused on South American harvest progress, weather and exports.