Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

We start off the day with MBA Mortgage Index (11/Mar), MBA Mortgage Refinance Index (11/Mar),MBA Purchas Index (11/Mar) MBA Mortgage Applications (11/Mar) and MBA 30-Year Mortgage Rate (11/Mar) at 6:00 A.M., Retail Sales MoM & YoY (Feb), Retail Sales Ex Autos MoM (Feb), Export Prices MoM & YoY (Feb) and Import Prices MoM & YoY (Feb) at 7:30 A.M., Business Inventories MoM (Jan), NAHB Housing Market Index (Mar) and Retail Sales Ex Autos MoM (Jan) at 8:00 A.M., EIA Energy Stocks at 9:30 A.M., Fed Interest Rate Decision at 1:00 P.M. Fed Press Conference at 1:30 P.M., and Dairy Products Sales at 2:00 P.M.

On the Corn Front we saw some green in the market not the Chicago River. It did not last long as we opened steady lower and steadily traded lower. Higher demand for U.S. exports and lower crude oil prices ignited the short covering. We are also looking for a tough growing season with many areas bone dry with rain and some areas in drought already with plenty of area with sub-totals on rains. The ground will need the moisture. In the overnight electronic session the May corn is currently trading at 749 ¼ which is 8 ¾ cents lower. The trading range has been 757 to 747.

On the Ethanol Front a corn dryer catches fire. The South Bend, Indiana plant on Calvert Street had responders arriving before 9:30 P.M<. containing the fire in about an hour and confirmed the corn dryer caught fire and started the blaze. There were no trades in the ethanol futures.

On the Crude Oil Front yesterday’s API numbers showed builds in crude oil at +3.754M and Cushing builds of +2.308M, gasoline had draws of 3.794M and builds in distillates of 888K. These numbers are kind of a mirage as some analyst believe we have topped. I say they are dreaming. We are getting a much dirtier environmental challenged source of oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela if they could keep the lights on. In the overnight electronic session the April crude is currently trading 9712 which is 68 points higher. The trading range has been 9922 to 9482.

On the Natural Gas Front the market is following suit with the complex trading higher. Where do we land next? Whispers on exports could further support. In the overnight electronic session the April natural gas is currently trading at 4.701 which is 0.133 higher. The trading range has been 4.743 to 4.594.