CME opening delayed until 10:00 AM CST
Morning calls are moderately higher across the board with corn and beans setting new contract highs overnight. Wheat is just off its Aug 6th high. No early help from macros but the market does not need them to rally today. Crude palm was higher overnight due to flooding concern in Indonesia and Malaysia. Couple this with a cyclone hitting Australian sugar cane production and we have enough support from softs. Rising tensions in Egypt will likely pop prices in crude with the growing political crisis in Jordan talked about heavily. Both factors should help commodities as a whole as money runs out of equities looking for a “safe” haven.
The strike appears to be over in Argentina for a 15-day period while formal negotiations occur between government reps and port and farm workers. Major issues are wages and export tariffs. Weather in Argentina remains wet for the rest of this week offering bearish momentum but excessive rains in northern Brazil offer a bullish impact. No changes to crop expectations today.
I think overall the market should rally in a light volume session. Market participation will be limited during snowmageddon! Chicago is not out of the woods yet with one more layer of snow expected over the next 6 hours. I believe the upside remains the path of least resistance no matter what happens with any USD rally today. Retain a bullish bias heading into the first half of Feb.
