Cotton futures rose on Wednesday supported by concerns that dry weather in West Texas, the largest U.S cotton-producing region, may weigh on U.S supplies of the crop.
The U.S. Agriculture Department likely rated the U.S. winter wheat crop as 53% good to excellent, according to an average of estimates given by nine analysts in a Reuters survey ahead of a government report on Monday.
Cotton futures slumped more than 3% on Thursday as a U.S. government report showed a sharp slide in weekly export sales, putting prices of the natural fiber on course for their third straight weekly decline.
Archer Daniels Midland said on Thursday it would restart ethanol production at two of its U.S. corn dry mills this year, as the grains trader expects demand for the biofuel to rebound from a pandemic-led slump.
Hard late-March rains in Argentina have set the stage for smooth wheat and barley sowing, but the storms arrived too late to help corn and soy yields in areas that had been pounded by months of dry weather.
Cotton futures edged lower in choppy trading on Monday, pressured by a firmer dollar, while expectations for a reduction to forecasts for planted acreage in a federal report due later this week put a floor under prices.
The maneuvers to try to refloat the mega container ship Ever Given, stranded in the Suez Canal since last Tuesday, have been successful early this Monday.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said a Mexican plan to ban imports of GMO corn would apply to grain used for human food products, not livestock feed, based on a conversation he had with Mexican Agriculture Secretary.
The first U.S.-China meeting of the Biden administration got off to a fiery start, with both sides leveling sharp rebukes of the others’ policies in a display that underscored the level of bilateral tension.
The Fed on Wednesday repeated its pledge to keep its target interest rate near zero for years to come after projecting a rapid jump in U.S. economic growth and inflation this year as the COVID-19 crisis winds down.
