Another good day for the stock market. Stocks jumped just over 0.6% on no real news. Volume was again very light, but breadth was positive. Daily Futures summarizes the action across all markets:
U.S. Economy
China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization after President Obama raised the U.S. tariff on tires from China. The December U.S. dollar index was up .07 at 76.96.The CEO of Citigroup said that he expects that his company will pay back the government’s bailout and also give taxpayers a good return. He did not elaborate just when that would happen. The December 2010 eurodollars were down .04 at 98.295.
Grains and Cotton
The USDA said that last week’s export inspections for:
Corn totaled 40.5 million bushels, up 27% from a year ago.
Soybeans totaled 10.2 million bushels, up 17% from a year ago.
Wheat totaled 21.5 million bushels, up 1% from a year ago.The USDA said that Mexico bought 419,100 tons of U.S. corn; China bought 113,000 tons of U.S. soybeans; and South Korea bought 110,000 tons of U.S. soybeans. November soybeans were lower most of the day, but ended up 6 cents at $9.09.
Cattlenetwork.com reported on a field trip survey showed that corn production in China’s biggest corn province, Jilin, may be down 30% this year due to drought. December corn was down 2 cents at $3.177.
Yesterday’s 6 to 10 day forecast from the National Weather Service looks favorable for the corn and soybean crops – mostly normal temperatures in the Midwest with below normal precipitation expected.
Livestock
Late Friday, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said that beef and pork exports were both down 13% in July from a year ago. October cattle ended down .17 at 87.05.Some are concerned that disagreements over trade policy between the U.S. and China will lead to China restricting imports of U.S. goods like poultry or grains. October hogs fell 1.52 to 50.95.
Coffee
On Friday, the International Coffee Organization’s August coffee report kept its estimate of 2008-2009 world production around 127 million bags, but increased its estimate of 2008 world consumption from 128.4 to 130.0 million bags. December coffee jumped up 6.55 cents to $1.3310.Sugar
March sugar closed up .83 at 23.69 with ongoing concerns about tight supplies this year, and possibly next.Metals
The U.S. dollar is cheap and the world economy is showing improvement, but December copper fell 4.20 cents to $2.8045.Energies
U.S. inventories of natural gas are still plentiful and this fall’s weather is mild, but it is possible that traders in natural gas are a little nervous being short as such low levels ahead of winter. November natural gas closed up 31.3 cents at $4.324.Currencies
Eurostat said that industrial production was down .2% in July and down 14.7% from a year ago. The December euro closed up .0021 at $1.4613.The European Commission said that it expects real GDP in the Eurozone to be up .2% in the third quarter and up .1% in the fourth quarter. For all of 2009, they expect GDP will be down 4.0%.
Retail sales in New Zealand were down .5% in July, weaker than expected.
Brazil said late Friday that real GDP was up 1.9% in the second quarter, better than most.
Source: Daily Futures
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.