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cattle futures drop
May 23rd, 2013
Cattle futures fell for a second straight day on speculation that U.S. beef demand is easing. Hog prices also declined.
Retailers probably have already filled meat orders for grilling demand for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which starts May 25, said Dick Quiter, an account executive at McFarland Commodities LLC. Meatpackers processed 373,000 cattle during the first three days of the week, down 0.5 percent from a year earlier, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.
“Demand seems to be a little bit lighter than what they hoped,” Quiter said in a telephone interview from Chicago. “Most of the retail buying for Memorial Day and maybe out even into Father’s Day, they pretty much have got that locked up.”
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soybean futures rise
May 23rd, 2013
Soybean futures touched a six-month high in Chicago on signs demand will increase in China, the world’s biggest importer of the oilseed, while U.S. supplies shrink before the next harvest.
China’s soybean imports will start increasing sizably from this month and jump 17 percent in the season beginning Aug. 1 to 68 million metric tons, Hamburg-based researcher Oil World said May 21. U.S. supplies before the next harvest will shrink to 125 million bushels, the smallest since 2004, the Department of Agriculture estimates.
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cocoa futures fall
May 22nd, 2013
Cocoa futures fell in London and New York on speculation prices that rallied yesterday climbed too far as rainfall may favor crop development in West Africa, the main growing region. Raw sugar rose in New York.
Cocoa gained 2 percent in London and 1.9 percent in New York yesterday as the pound fell to a six-week low against the dollar after a report showed U.K. inflation slowed more in April than economists forecast. Cocoa growing areas in West Africa got widespread rainfall last week, with the heaviest amounts over southwestern Cameroon and southern Ivory Coast, MDA Weather Services, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said in a report e-mailed yesterday.
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Dow Jones futures rise
May 22nd, 2013
Dow Jones Futures – U.S. stock futures rose, after equity benchmarks climbed to record highs yesterday, as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s testimony on the economy and the central bank’s asset purchases.
Saks Inc. soared 17 percent after people with knowledge of the matter said the retailer has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore options including a sale. Target Corp. lost 2.1 percent after profit fell 29 percent as higher taxes and cooler temperatures hampered sales. Lowe’s Cos., the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, slipped 2.6 percent after reporting earnings that trailed analysts’ estimates.
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bond futures rise
May 20th, 2013
Bond Futures – The longest decline in Treasuries this year has left U.S. government debt the cheapest since March 2011 when measured by real yields and the best relative value compared with German bunds in more than two decades.
After inflation, 10-year U.S. notes yielded 0.91 percent last week, or 1.77 percentage points more than real yields on U.K. gilts, the widest spread in 25 months. Versus Germany, the securities are the least costly in 23 years when adjusted for the recent record-low interest rates around the world that distorted the normal relationship, according to FTN Financial.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is counting on Treasuries to contain borrowing costs as the central bank buys $85 billion a month in securities to sustain the economic recovery that lifted U.S. consumer confidence to the highest in almost six years. The better relative yield for U.S. bonds may help bolster demand even as Warren Buffett said this month that he pitied fixed-income investors because of about record-low interest rates.
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natural gas futures climb
May 20th, 2013
Natural gas futures advanced for a second day in New York on forecasts for above-normal temperatures that would boost demand for the power-plant fuel.
Gas gained as much as 2.6 percent after Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland, predicted warmer-than-average weather in the Northeast and Great Lakes region through May 24. The high in New York on May 22 may be 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 Celsius), 10 more than usual, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.
“The weather continues to confound the bears,” said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst for Price Futures Group in Chicago. “Temperatures have gone from colder than normal to warmer than normal. There’s been an incredible amount of volatility with the weather situation.”
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s&p 500 futures advance
May 17th, 2013
S&P 500 Futures – U.S. stocks advanced, putting the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on track for its fourth straight week of gains, as gauges for leading indicators and consumer sentiment advanced more than estimated.
Northrop Grumman Corp. climbed 3.8 percent after increasing its share-buyback program by $4 billion. Boeing Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added added more than 2 percent to pace gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (INDU) J.C. Penney Co. slid 3.7 percent after its first-quarter loss widened.
The S&P 500 (SPX) rose 0.5 percent to 1,658.59. at 11:55 a.m. in New York. The equity benchmark is heading for a 1.5 percent weekly gain. The Dow advanced 61.95 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,295.17, a fresh record. Options contracts on stocks, exchange-traded funds and indexes expire today, leading investors to adjust their holdings of some securities. Trading of S&P 500 stocks was 3.4 percent higher than the 30-day average at this time of day.
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Natural gas futures remain
May 17th, 2013
Natural gas futures will trade below $4 per million British thermal units for the rest of the year, according to a KPMG LLP Global Energy Institute survey of U.S. energy executives.
The survey showed 73 percent forecast that the price will range from $3 to $4 in 2013. Gas for June delivery settled at $3.932 yesterday, down 12 percent from the 2013 high of $4.444 in intraday trading on May 1.
“Greater assurance of supply appears to be stabilizing commodity price environments and enabling large investments,” said Regina Mayor, Houston-based oil and gas sector leader for KPMG. “At the same time, marginal production remains shut in which could quickly be reinstated.”
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soybean futures rise
May 17th, 2013
Soybean futures rose in Chicago, set for the biggest weekly gain since January, on signs of sustained Chinese demand and on speculation a pickup in U.S. corn planting may leave less acreage for sowing the oilseed.
China, the biggest soybean importer, purchased 79 percent of 346,634 metric tons sold by U.S. exporters in the week ended May 9 for delivery in the year beginning Sept. 1, the Department of Agriculture reported yesterday. That takes total U.S. sales for the next marketing year to 8.86 million tons before most farmers even planted their crops, USDA data show.
“Sustained U.S. soybean export sales to China supported soybean values,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a report today.
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gold futures fall
May 17th, 2013
Gold bears are dominant again after prices resumed their slump and billionaire George Soros joined investors selling holdings in exchange-traded products that have retreated to a two-year low.
Seventeen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to fall next week, with eight bullish and three neutral, the highest proportion of bears in two weeks. The analysts were divided a week ago after gold rebounded as much as 13 percent from the two-year low of $1,321.95 an ounce on April 16. ETP holdings slid 16 percent to 2,207.1 metric tons this year, the lowest since July 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
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