This year ends with a peek at the latest numbers from the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders (COT) report. The chart below shows the net reported positions of the four different reporting groups. The producer/merchant/processor/user (PMPU) group is the commercial sector of the markets. However, the large speculative funds known as Pools is the sector of most concern. Note that the size of its short in Chicago wheat and corn futures remains record or near-record large. The Pools position in soybeans has shifted from a modest long three or four weeks ago to a small net short position at year-end, and this could be one of the keys to how the soy complex reacts in early 2018.
Weather in Argentina will be one of the key factors in the directi...
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...
