What Traders are Talking About:
* Global economic concerns heighten. Budgetary figures released Sunday signaled Greece will miss its deficit targets set this summer.Euro-zone finance ministers are meeting on the debt situation again today as they try to come up with a solution. With increased concerns about Greece defaulting on sovereign debt, global stock markets and commodities continue to reel. There's much debate about whether this will lead to another recession. But quite frankly, investors are acting likely they believe we are already in recession.
The long and short of it: Investor confidence remains shaken, which will keep markets on the defensive. Brief market corrections are likely to be seen as fresh selling opportunities.
* USDA delivers another grains stocks shocker. Corn traders are still reacting to last Friday's Quarterly Grain Stocks Report in which USDA's Sept. 1 corn stocks figure came in 166 million bu. higher than the average pre-report trade guess. That pushed 2010-11 corn carryover (2011-12 corn beginning stocks) to 1.128 billion bushels. Corn stocks are still tight, just not nearly as tight as previously expected. As a result, nearby corn futures ended limit down Friday, which means the daily trading limit is expanded to 60 cents today.
The long and short of it: Markets hate surprises. Unfortunately, shocking corn figures in USDA's Quarterly Grain Stocks Reports have become the norm dating back to June 2010.
* New month, new quarter... but no new money chasing markets. The third quarter was ugly for market bulls, as I highlighted last Friday. And the fourth quarter is starting off with bears maintaining the strong upper hand. There had been some hope the fourth quarter would renew buying interest, but there's nothing magical about a calendar flipping. It's hard for investors to get excited when there are heightening global economic concerns, and in the case of corn, you've been dealt a significant hit from the fundamental side.
See Comments
