We start off the day with Chicago Fed Activity Index (JUL), at 7:30 A.M>, Export Inspections at 10:00 A.M., 3-Month and 6-Month Bill Auction at 10:30 A.M., Cold Storage at 2:00 P.M., Crop Progress at 3:00 P.M. and we have the Federal Reserve’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for guidance on U.S. monetary policy.

On the Corn front the Pro-Farmer crop tour estimated lower corn output with pushed prices to near a one-week high. The tropical storms in the Gulf potentially give much needed rain to the Mid-west but the cones get dicey and vary which direction the storm’s path will head once the two make landfall. In the overnight electronic session the December corn is currently trading at 342 ½ which is 2 ½ cents higher. The trading range has been 343 to 341.

On the Ethanol Brazil-U.S. over ethanol as sugar tariffs heats up. In a letter Thursday a group of federal lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to push Brazil either to eliminate ethanol tariffs or face retaliation. We keep you posted on the coming events between these two large exports sort out detail. There were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. The September contract settled 1.280 and is currently showing 0 bids and 2 offers @ 63 contracts.

On the Crude Oil front Saudi Arabia the worlds top oil exporter saw its crude oil exports in June to their lowest level on record at just below 5 million barrels per day. Saudi’s crude exports diverged from 10 million (bpd) in April to 6.02 million (bpd) in May, and in June slashed another 1 million (bpd) Even with OPEC+ easing production cuts the Saudi’s have signaled it would not ramp up production this month. In the overnight electronic session the October crude oil is currently trading at 4277 which is 43 points higher. The trading range has been 4279 to 4223.

On the Natural Gas front we will be keeping an eye on Tropical Storms Marco and Laura all day which currently looks to wreak havoc  on crude oil and natural gas facilities on the U.S. coastline in the Gulf of Mexico. Alex Kimani with OILPRICE.com reports that back in 2010, Texas based Anadarko Corp. (now a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp.) and Italian energy giant ENI SpA announced the discovery of roughly 180 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, an equivalent to 29 billion barrels of oil, in Mozanbique’s super giant offshore basin of Rovuma, immediately catapulting the south African nation to a potential global LNG superpower. As expected other majors saw the gold-rush including Exxon Mobil, Total, Shell and CNPC (China National Petroleum Corp) rushed in to stake their claims. But there is a real danger with the proliferation of terrorism in the region that may force the majors to bail out of the project The revenue could reap $100 million in LNG revenues or 7x it’s annual GDP which would be a big blow to Mozanbique the worlds 6th poorest nation. In the overnight electronic session the September natural gas is currently trading at 2.503 which is .055 higher. The trading range has been 2.514 to 2.390.

Have A Great Trading Day!
Dan Flynn