Grain Market Chatter Closing Comments 03/24/2015

Craig’s Closing Comments

March 24, 2015

You know I go out of my way to keep you on the cutting edge of the news which is why when I saw an article entitled, Scientists Want to Mine Our Poop for Gold, I knew I had to get you up to speed on this issue.  Turns out a lady by the name of Kathleen Smith who works for the US Geological Survey and she’s taking the lead on a new research program that’s examining the feasibility of extracting precious metals from sewage.  Her theory is that we can recover metals from waste which in turn could reduce the need for environmentally-destructive mining programs, and make biosolids a safer source of fertilizer.  So basically she’s a tree hugging poop miner.  My first reaction was to make fun of this but if we really have all these precious metals in our feces it occurs to me that just mining the line of BS flowing from Washington D.C. could pay off the national debt.

Corn:

We had kind of an interesting day in the corn market.  We have wet conditions in Texas and Louisiana which is keeping farmers from getting an early start on corn planting.  Concern over this delayed planting triggered some buying which moved the market enough to generate additional technical buying.

Interestingly enough the wet weather is also generating concern of possible yield loss and potential for increased disease and insect damage to the corn crop if wet soils persist.  So, we are trading higher because we can’t get it planted plus we are trading higher because if we do plant it to crop will be crap because disease and insects will wipe it out.

Of course, we also continue to hear speculation that corn acres will be down this year with bean acres higher.  I tend to agree with that thought process.  Put this all together and there is enough uncertainty to put the bulls in charge for now.

At the present time all three of my technical indicators are bullish both the old and new crop futures. 

Soybean:

The news that drove corn higher, i.e. weather related planting delays, proved to be bearish for beans as it conjured up the image of additional acres of beans being planted.  A surge in bean acres, coming on the heels of a record South American crop is not a recipe for higher prices.

The trade is also concerned that a slowing economy in China may result in reduced demand.  It is worth noting that we have not seen the Chinese buyers in the market for the past week or so.

In South America harvest continues to make good progress with favorable weather conditions for the remainder of the week.

At the present time two of my three technical indicators are bullish both the old and new crop futures. 

Wheat:

Wheat got kicked around a bit today as we saw profit taking on the heels of yesterday’s rally.  In addition to the profit taking the market felt some pressure from the improving winter wheat conditions and better chances for much needed moisture in parts of the hard red winter wheat areas.  It didn’t help that the dollar was stronger today and the export market appears to be weak.

At the present time two of my three technical indicators are bullish both the Kansas City and Minneapolis July futures.