Daily Close | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture March 23, 2021

The company has 26 restaurants and coffee shops, and typically imports 30,000 bags in around 90 shipping containers from Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Tanzania and India. The US stock market has been generally firm to help support ideas of a better economy here and potentially increased demand for Cotton products. Mexican crop conditions in central and southern areas are called good with rains, but earlier dry weather might have hurt production.
less ShareTweetPostEmail Workers harvest coffee on a farm in Machado, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in 2019. The weekly export sales report showed solid Cotton demand. less Source: Unsplash COTTON General Comments: Futures were a little lower in consolidation trading. Arabica-coffee futures in New York rose about 24% since the end of October following the damage to Brazilian groves.

After the Fed’s press conference from last Wednesday, the dollar quickly turned higher and erased the temporary losses seen during the press conference. The most interesting thing is that no one could attribute the fall in the price of oil to anything else but fears of a stronger U.S. dollar. The stock market is struggling, even with the government announcing a three trillion dollar “recovery” plan. Bitcoin enthusiasts intend to substitute Bitcoin for the U.S. dollar and other national currencies – not for gold.
less The Canadian Dollar is gaining a considerable amount of ground during Tuesday afternoon trade. Powell said of Bitcoin, “It’s more a speculative asset that’s essentially a substitute for gold rather than for the dollar.” Here Powell gets things totally wrong. On Tuesday the dollar also rose 0.5% against rivals as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen give testimonies. The US Dollar was stronger and hurt demand ideas.

Although some Bitcoiners tout the cryptocurrency as “digital gold” and liken the mining of coins on the blockchain to the actual mining of physical metal, these are mere analogies. A digital asset could not possibly substitute for gold or any other tangible asset that is valued for its unique physical properties. A lot of gold investors became frustrated in the 2011-2018 period because they watched the money supply soar, but inflation moved only modestly.
With the exception of precious metals, led by gold, all other commodities fell sharply.

After EIA’s report for last week’s build of 472,000 barrels, we expect total gasoline stocks to build by 1.2 million barrels for the week of March 19th. It shows what the fall in the crude oil price triggered last week. The big question this week is to see if the move lower in the price of oil continues? Vessel Movements As typical, there were no exports of either diesel or jet fuel from Mexico, either last week or this week. This finally starting kicking in nicely a week ago, as crude oil broke its uptrend.
The more the confidence increased, the higher the price of oil, and the higher the risky assets. As such, the rise in the price of oil came on the back of increased optimism on the economic recovery. For the first time after the price of oil settled below zero in 2020, it dropped 10% in just a few days. Despite increased awareness about climate change and the negative effects of using fossil fuels, the world’s energetic needs depend on oil.
The Fed has previously signalled low-interest rates, and the likelihood for further fiscal stimulus has boosted the greenback making oil more expensive in other currencies thus pressuring prices further. A further drop in the price of oil should trigger something similar. Any trader knows that there is no economic recovery possible if there is no demand for oil. For more details visit the page US East & West Coast Gasoline Import Forecast or copy and paste link in EIKON search box: amers1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?navid=942731478 Your comments are always welcome.
The April East-West 380 fuel oil differential flat $0.00 to $13.50/mt, while the May contract gained $0.25 to $13.00/mt.
The weakness in near term demand of Brent crude translated into futures flipping into a contango for the first time since mid-January. The Gasoline Import Forecast of US West Coast stands at 104,000 bpd aboard three MR tankers for the week ending March 19th. Germany, Europe’s biggest oil consumer, is extending its lockdown until the 18th of April.

Institutional money managers cheered as the Fed printed no money for Main Street but threw trillions at financial markets. The April 21 ULSD CIF Med cargoes differential was flat from the previous close at $3.75/mt, while the May 21 differential was flat at $4.50/mt. The April 21 ULSD CIF NWE cargoes differential was flat from the previous close at $2.50/mt, while the May 21 differential was flat at $3.25/mt. The important Richmond Fed subcategories (new orders and unfilled orders) are in expansion but the direction of growth was mixed this month.
“The Fed has told you … that they’re not going to move or even talk about moving [interest rates] for maybe the whole year. He has been quoted in a variety of financial news publications, such as CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. That’s because so much money has been printed by the Fed. These volumes arrived on two vessels, one from the US and the other from the Netherlands.
Photo: Cesare Salerno for The Wall Street Journal By David Benoit Close March 23, 2021 1:11 pm ET The future of work at Citigroup Inc. will be hybrid. Source: Bloomberg How long until The Fed does the same? The foreign investors were Fidelity, Eastspring Investment, Nomura, Goldman Sachs, Kuber India and UPS Group Trust.