On the Chicago stock exchange, corn contracts were unable to shake off the red signs that had prevailed since Tuesday and also ended Wednesday with slight losses. The March futures contract with the highest turnover fell by 2.25 US cents to the equivalent of 160.69 euros/tonne. Corn contracts thus continued their losing streak for the third day this week. The weekly EIA report showed that ethanol production fell by 46,000 barrels per day from last week's record to 1.073 million bushels per day. Inventories rose 134,000 barrels to 23.003 million barrels as exports fell 32,000 bushels per day to 126,000 bushels per day. Market participants' export sales estimates ahead of today's Thursday report are for 0.75 million to 1.5 million tons of 2024/25 corn bookings for the week of Nov. 28. Algeria has issued a tender for 240,000 tons of corn, results are also expected today (Thursday). Meanwhile, Mexico is expected to find a solution to the import and export restrictions on genetically modified corn under the USMCA by December 14. Traders and market participants are hoping that this will lead to a significant increase in trading momentum. Trading on the European stock exchange in Paris was lackluster on Wednesday. March futures fell into the red with a loss of 0.25 euros/tonne to 205.75 euros/tonne.
The bulls were also unable to fully assert themselves in wheat. The US wheat complex ended Wednesday's session mixed on the three exchanges. Chicago SRW futures rose marginally in the front months. Futures on the other two exchanges also failed to find a consistent direction, trading marginally higher to slightly weaker. For today's USDA export sales report, the trade is expecting wheat sales of between 250,000 and 550,000 tons in the week ending 28.11.2024, according to a Reuters survey. The weather outlook in large parts of the USA is also currently providing bullish impetus. Low levels of precipitation are expected in the winter wheat growing regions in December, which in turn could have a negative impact on the further development of stocks. The latest data from Stats Canada (Canada's statistical agency) is expected to show in today's report of market participants' estimates that the country's wheat production is expected to total 35 million tons this year. Last year's total was 32.95 million tons. Spring wheat is expected to account for 25.98 million tons of that total.
ZMP Live Expert Opinion
Grain prices continued to be volatile this week. After last week's good to sufficient growing conditions in many important regions, concerns about the weather are now coming back into focus. Not only in the USA, but also in Australia and Russia, the consequences could give futures a short-term direction.