Grains in the red after surging for two days/ Thursday, July 20, 2023

December corn is currently down 7¢.

November soybeans are down 3¢.

CBOT wheat is down 5¢. KC wheat is down 6¢. Minneapolis wheat is down 2¢.

Arlan Suderman, chief economist for StoneX, says Russia attacked Ukraine port facilities again overnight but the market had a milder reaction this time around.

“The seriousness of the situation was seen in a threat from Russia on Wednesday when it said that it would consider any ship moving toward Ukraine as possibly containing military equipment and a possible target,” he says. “Ukraine has since warned that any ships heading to ports in Russia, or occupied areas of Ukraine, may also be considered military targets. This is the risk that I’ve been warning that we could eventually reach.

“The market told us on Monday that Russia pulling out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative really didn’t matter near-term, because Russia is still dumping record quantities of cheap wheat onto the world market, and Brazil is currently releasing large volumes of cheap corn onto the market. The trade expected that Ukraine would ‘find a way’ with the help of the United Nations and Turkey to open a new ‘safe corridor’ for shipping grains longer-term. Fund managers maintained their massive short positions in wheat and their expanding short positions in corn.

USDA released the weekly Export Sales report this morning. Corn, soybeans, and wheat export sales all fell within the expected range except net soybean sales for 2023/2024. With 760,300 metric tons in export sales for the new crop year, soybeans exceeded expectations.

Live cattle are currently up 65¢. Lean hogs are up $2.28. Feeder cattle are up $1.83.

Crude oil is up 74¢.

S&P 500 futures are down 19 points. Dow futures are up 133 points.

Milling wheat is down on the MATIF exchange. Corn and soybeans are up on the Dalian exchange.

Tags: corn, soybeans, wheat, futures, live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs