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Good Morning farm country. Davis Michaelsen here with your morning update for Friday, March 5. From Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today, these are some of the stories we are watching this morning:
Corn futures opened under pressure, but the market has since reversed higher. Futures are up 2 to 6 cents, with old-crop leading gains. Soybean futures are also trading near the upper end of their two-sided overnight trading range and are 2 to 6 cents higher. Winter and spring wheat futures are down 1 to 3 cents. The U.S. dollar index hit a 3.5-month high overnight, supported by the rise in U.S. Treasury yields.
Bond traders are signaling they do not believe Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s assessment that inflation will not continue to heat up in the coming months; they believe higher inflation in the months ahead could prompt the Fed to raise interest rates much sooner than many expected or the fed has indicated.
Cargill Inc. plans to expand soybean processing capacity at two large Midwest crush facilities and boost efficiency at five other facilities, as the company expects demand for food and fuel, including renewable diesel, to grow as the U.S. economy reopens and returns to normal.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the state economic planning agency emphasized food security in annual reports to parliament, reiterating a pledge to expand corn plantings this year and announcing an increase to its minimum purchase price for wheat and rice.
Investigators from the WHO are scrapping an interim report on Covid’s origins. They say the World Health Organization (WHO) team that last month completed a mission to Wuhan—the Chinese city where the first known cases were found—had insufficient access to adequately investigate possible sources of the new coronavirus, including whether it slipped from a laboratory.
Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) says Congress will do what it has done before: waive the requirement to offset spending that would trigger major cuts to mandatory programs like farm programs. If Congress does not, there will be huge sequestration (across-the-board) cuts.
A number of Asian markets banned imports of German pork in September 2020 after African swine fever was confirmed in its wild boar population. But Germany has been able to keep the virus out of its farm operations, prompting importers to ease restrictions
Live cattle futures settled low range with losses on Thursday as traders worked to narrow futures’ gap to the cash market. A fifth consecutive week of steady cash action at $114 eased concerns about a pullback. Boxed beef values were mixed yesterday, with Choice climbing 85 cents and Select falling $2.56.
The pork cutout value pushed higher on Thursday and movement improved a bit. Picnics, hams and loins led gains, with the cutout value now down just 32 cents for the week. Cash hog bids climbed another $1.93. Meanwhile, weekly pork export sales were impressive.
