TOP STORIES: 


 
Corn Falls to Cap Volatile Week

Corn for July delivery fell 4.5% to $6.45 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Friday, staying in correction mode as funds cut their exposure in long positions. "CBOT futures are sharply mixed at midday with old-crop corn pushing lower on continued liquidation," said AgResource. The firm estimates that fund managers sold 22,000-26,000 contracts of corn and 1,000-2,000 contracts of wheat Friday, while buying 4,200 contracts of soybeans. As of last week's CFTC commitments of traders report, managed money funds held a net long position of over 355,000 contracts. 


 
Appetite for Veg Oil Among Renewable Fuels Keeps Lifting Soyoil -- Market Talk

14:53 ET - Underlying factors like China's demand for soybeans and Argentina's issues with its soybean crop have been supportive for soyoil futures this year, but so is demand for vegetable oil as a whole from the renewable fuels industry. While producers of renewable diesel and other green fuels would prefer to use animal fats as feedstock for biofuels, there simply isn't enough available to do so, says Juan Sacoto of IHS Markit. 40% of all beef tallow and 80% of all used yellow cooking grease is already sold to the renewable fuels industry, the firm says--totaling roughly 2B pounds each. Meanwhile, approximately 20B pounds of feedstock will be needed for the industry in 2021, says Sacoto. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

STORIES OF INTEREST: 


 
Circuit Court Upholds Roundup Verdict -- Market Talk

1455 ET - A federal circuit court deals Bayer another blow in the yearslong cancer litigation over Roundup, the herbicide that Bayer acquired as part of its $63B deal in 2018 for biotech crop giant Monsanto. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling in favor of a California man who had sprayed the weedkiller on his residential properties, and claimed he developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma as a result. Bayer, which has argued that decades of scientific research and regulatory reviews have proven Roundup's safety, says it's disappointed by the ruling and will pursue all legal options in the case, including petitioning the Supreme Court to hear it. (jacob.bunge@wsj.com; @jacobbunge) 


 
USDA Reports New Flash Sale of Corn to China -- Market Talk

11:14 ET - The USDA has confirmed another flash sale of US corn to China today, with 1.36M metric tons being sold for delivery in the 2021/22 marketing year. The USDA confirmed US grain flash sales every day for a week now, with most of those sales comprised of corn to China. However, the bulk of the sales are for 2021/22 crop with said corn planted now and yet to be grown. Corn futures are down 2.2% Friday, with the correction that started Thursday continuing into today. Meanwhile, soybeans are up 0.5% and wheat is down 0.6%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais) 


 
Potential Fix to Mississippi River Bridge Lift Grains -- Market Talk

0905 ET - A closure of a bridge on the Mississippi River to barge and vehicle traffic was a factor putting pressure on grains futures yesterday, but indications that the bridge may soon be repaired enough to allow barge traffic to restart has grains higher in pre-market trading Friday. "The talk this morning is that there is hope that the Desoto Bridge will be able to be repaired or at least stabilized so that river traffic can begin again," says Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage. Overnight, corn futures rose 1.3%, soybeans rose 0.9%, and wheat rose 2.9%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

THE MARKETS: 


 
Hog Futures Lead Push Lower as Soybeans Turn Higher -- Market Talk

1507 ET - Lean hog futures trading on the CME closed down leading the livestock complex lower -- with the most-active contract ending down 1.3% to $1.0975 per pound, while live cattle futures closed down 0.4% to $1.16575 per pound. For hogs, the downtrend seen in the contract comes as soybean futures trading on the CBOT managed to turn higher, even as corn -- another common feed ingredient -- posted another 4.5% dip in trading today. For soybeans, indications of continued tight supplies kept them higher today, says Arlan Suderman of StoneX. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-14-21 1741ET