Open: New York Session | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture February 18, 2021

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Agriculture

The extraordinary underproduction of corn and soybeans over the past two seasons has helped Chicago-traded futures reach multi-year highs, increasing projected profitability for the 2021 harvest. MARKET NEWS Chicago wheat futures slid for a second straight session as concerns eased about crop losses from recent cold weather across the United States. Corn, soybeans and competing crops are no longer “hot potatoes” in farmers eyes as they have been in recent, low-price seasons.
Fertilizer producers have benefited from high U.S. crop exports, including record-large corn sales to China.

Currencies

On the other hand, the dollar index faces a hurdle, raising doubts over the continuation of yesterday’s rally. In turn, Treasury yields may drop off their highs, and make the dollar less attractive. less Never underestimate the American consumer – a leap of 5.3% in January’s retail sales has smashed all estimates, more than compensated for previous disappointment, and boosted the dollar. If that does not bring the dollar down, perhaps the would take some of the air out of the rally.

Metals

Gold trading has become popular as investors from all walks of life use gold as a hedge against any market decline. MARKET NEWS Gold prices clawed back from the previous session’s 2-1/2-month low, as a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields lifted the non-yielding bullion’s appeal. Note that in the last five sessions, gold has skidded nearly Rs 2,000 per 10 grams in tandem with a decline in global rates. Gold prices are trading up by 0.3% at Rs 46,360 per 10 grams.
If global market conditions are poor, the demand for gold will increase because supply is limited for such natural resources. Watching bitcoin hit $50,000, SoftBank’s stock price surpass its dot-com boom high and even silver catch a bid from retail traders must be particularly difficult for holders of gold. At a bit below $1,800 a troy ounce, gold prices are far below the highs of around $2,050 reached in early August. Gold was steady today in Indian markets after a five-day slide that pushed prices to a nearly 8-month low.
Investors who have a strong view on whether inflation is coming and if so whether the Fed would react quickly against it might make a bet on gold. The metal’s recent performance should be confirmation, if any were really needed, that buyers of gold are really just buying inflation-protected government bonds under a different name.

Oil

Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 1.627 million barrels, or about 256,000 tonnes, to 19.379 million barrels, or 3.052 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed. Russia is pinning its hopes on hard-to-recover oil, hidden beneath non-porous rocks, such as at Bazhenov, as conventional oil reserves in West Siberia, its main oil-producing area, are falling. WTI has been pushing higher as US crude output is affected by the deep freeze in the largest oil producing US state.
Saudi Arabian crude oil exports reached an 8-month high in Dec 2020 as per official data released by the government to JODI. Vietnam’s biggest oil refinery, the $9-billion Nghi Son, started commercial operations in late 2018, and has a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (bpd). WTI crude oil eases back from $62, uptrend remains intact. Almost 40% of U.S. crude production is now offline, helping push the global benchmark Brent price above $65 a barrel in Asia trading. Analysts estimated that about 1 million-bpd of crude production has been shut, and it could be weeks before output is fully restored.
March CFR naphtha-Brent cracks were $0.41 higher at $0.65/bbl; 2Q ’21 traded $0.47 higher at $0.39/bbl while the 2H Cal ’21 advanced $0.45 at -$0.08/bbl. March 92 RON-Brent cracks were $0.46 higher at $5.76/bbl; 2Q ’21 traded $0.49 higher at $6.49/bbl while the 2H Cal ’21 advanced $0.29 at $5.68/bbl.

United States

Along with Wall Street competitors, its investment bank booked bumper fees from clients trading in last year’s gyrating markets and from companies raising capital or needing deal advice. Sponsored Offers The Fed Minutes have come and gone and no surprise to see the central bank holding the line with respect to its overly accommodative and dovish outlook. Since leaving Wall Street I’ve dedicated my financial career towards studying this situation and helping people understand what’s actually happening.
Things might get so good that we need to cool things down.But maybe the answer is to spend even more, and for the Fed to ease more.
US stock futures are trading lower today, indicating a negative opening for Wall Street. Mr. Clayton, a longtime corporate deals lawyer who served on Sullivan & Cromwell’s management committee, was nominated for the SEC role by then-President Donald Trump in 2017. Its Nasdaq-listed shares lost 70% of their value from 2018 to the trough reached in March last year. It was a tumultuous year for Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets, after rival UBS Group AG .
Wall Street awoke to realize the potential of Main Street investors to drive markets and create noise, and it all started on Reddit. UBS said it has an eye toward approving some semitransparent products in the future.

Europe

Prospects are improving with the rollout of a nationwide vaccination program but uncertainty persists, in part because of added challenges due to the country’s exit from the European Union. The EU have massively upscaled their supply of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna with additional and substantial contracts for deliveries during 2021 in place. ECB meeting minutes and Eurozone consumer confidence due later today. On a more downbeat note, reluctancy to vaccinate with AztraZeneca vaccines leaves jabs unused in the EU region.
The European Union was on the vaccine-supply offense yesterday as they extended vaccine supply with new agreements with both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Infections in England have fallen significantly in recent weeks, a boost to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he weighs how fast to re-open the economy. less Dax in holding pattern ahead of ECB minutes. The EU portfolio now lands a comfortable 2.6b doses.
ECB Converges on Green Policy as Activists Patience Wears Thin European Central Bank officials are finally building a consensus. EU is falling short of its emissions-reduction target, WoodMac says.

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