North Dakota focusing on big farmland buy of group affiliated with Bill Gates
In Today’s Digital Newspaper |
The modified dispatch continues as I am frankly having a lot of fun relaxing with family in the Ozarks… I even got on a “wave runner”… hardest part was getting on and off!
More big new-crop cotton sales to China. USDA Weekly Export Sales data for the week ended June 16 contained another large batch of upland cotton sales to China and cancellations of another cargo of U.S. corn. For the week ended June 16, USDA said exporters reported activity for 2021-22 for China including net reductions of 67,174 tonnes of corn, net sales of 60,131 tonnes of sorghum, net sales of 6,300 tonnes of soybeans, and 4,488 running bales of upland cotton. For 2022-23, activity included sales of 66,000 tonnes of soybeans and 238,097 running bales of upland cotton. Net sales of 1,413 tonnes of beef and 1,921 tonnes of pork were reported for 2022.
Markets: Global stock markets were mostly up overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward firmer openings. Stocks are on course for their first weekly rise this monthThe U.S. 10-year yield was around 3.09%. Dollar weakness resumed. Crude futures broke out of its Asian trading range with WTI trading above $105. Spot gold held steady near $1,825/oz. Bitcoin drifted below $21,000. Global equity funds saw their biggest outflows in nine weeks as investors piled into cash on concern the U.S. economy may be headed for a recession. U.S. equities had their first outflow in seven weeks, at $17.4 billion, according to a Bank of America Corp. report. Equities in Asia, Japan +1.2%. Hong Kong +2.1%. China +0.9%. India +0.9%. In Europe, at midday, London +1.5%. Paris +1.9%. Frankfurt +0.7%.
Says market analyst Jim Wyckoff: “The narrative in the marketplace has shifted this week, from one of rising and problematic inflation, to slowing major economies that could slip into recession. This week’s big declines in raw commodity futures prices, including and led by crude oil, are one clue that inflationary pressures may have peaked. The increasing likelihood of recessions in major global economies has prompted commodity traders to reckon demand for commodities will weaken in the coming months. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in remarks to Congress this week gave little comfort to lawmakers and a marketplace worried about a U.S. recession… Looking into next year, January crude oil futures are presently trading around $94.00 a barrel—further hinting at slowing demand due to slowing economies.” Oil is headed for its first monthly loss of 2022.
Ag markets: Grain and soybean futures climbed overnight in a bounce-back from Thursday’s steep losses. As of 7:30 a.m. ET, corn futures were 1 cent lower to 11 cents higher, soybeans were 2 to 6 cents higher and winter wheat futures were 11 to 19 cents higher. Front-month U.S. crude oil futures were nearly $1.80 higher and the U.S. dollar index is about 150 points lower this morning.
Key oil report will not be released this week. The most closely watched oil data in the world — the U.S. government’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report—won’t be released as planned this week because of system issues stemming from a power problem,
Ethanol prices have risen steadily this year, boosted by a Biden administration mandate to blend more of the biofuel into gasoline and some of the highest U.S. consumer inflation in decades. The price of ethanol, the corn-based fuel that is a common gasoline additive, has risen 14% so far this quarter, outpacing crude oil. The thinly traded Chicago Ethanol Platts futures contract, the industry benchmark, settled Wednesday at $2.82 a gallon. In late November, it reached a record of $3.45. Link to more via the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. natural-gas sales to China have dried up as the Ukraine war disrupts energy trade. A year ago, China was racing to buy as much natural gas from the U.S. as it could get. Now, it is buying more from Russia.
Biden should consider curbing U.S. crude oil exports: Dem Senators: Democratic Senators urged President Biden to limit crude oil exports to preserve petroleum supplies for the U.S. and allies. A “severe spike” in energy prices provides justification for the use of this authority, Senators Jack Reed (R.I.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) said in a letter.
Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk have been told to withdraw, after withstanding months of Russian shelling in the town that has become the focal point of the invasion. About 80% of houses have been severely damaged according to Serhiy Haidai, the regional governor. Russian forces have nearly encircled the city.
Ukraine and Moldova were formally accepted as candidates for EU membership by 27 members of the group of nations. It may take more than a decade to actually join, following a long process, but this is an important step, prompted by Russia’s invasion. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “a unique and historic moment.”
U.S. Senate cleared a bipartisan bill toughening up federal gun laws. The vote was 65 to 33 with 15 Republicans voting with Democrats. If the legislation passes the House, as is expected today, it will be the most significant attempt in decades by American lawmakers to keep firearms out of the hands of people deemed dangerous. The measure includes millions of dollars for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to bolster juvenile records systems. It also makes significant changes to the process for people ages 18 to 21 to buy a firearm and closes the so-called boyfriend loophole. The package, however, does not include an assault weapons ban that Democrats were seeking.
Supreme Court struck down a law in the state of New York that required people to demonstrate “proper cause” to carry a concealed handgun in public. In a 6-to-3 vote, along ideological lines, the justices ruled that the century-old law infringed the constitutional right of citizens “with ordinary self-defense needs” to bear arms.
Lawmakers pressed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over how the central bank would manage trade-offs it could confront if its interest rate increases slow the economy sharply but don’t reduce inflation quickly. Powell on Thursday said that in such a scenario, the Fed would be reluctant to shift from raising rates to cutting them until it saw clear evidence that inflation was coming down in a convincing fashion. Fed governor Michelle Bowman said the central bank would need to raise interest rates aggressively this year to combat inflation. Meanwhile, Fed stress test found big banks can weather a severe recession.
Mortgage rates reached the highest level in more than 13 years for the second straight week. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 5.81%, mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac said Thursday, the highest level since November 2008. Some lenders are already quoting rates of 6% or more. The latest increase in home buyer borrowing costs comes after the Federal Reserve last week raised interest rates by the largest margin since 1994 and said it planned future increases.
‘Coast to coast’ housing correction is coming in U.S.: Zandi. A housing correction will reach from “coast to coast” in the U.S., but it will fall short of a crash, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. With the Fed’s interest rate hike, home prices will likely fall in the housing markets that are most “juiced,” Zandi said.
U.S. households held $17.9 trillion in cash and cash equivalents as of the end of the first quarter, up a bit from the fourth quarter and much higher than the $13.7 trillion they had at the end of the first quarter of 2020, according to Federal Reserve data.
Consumer prices in Japan increased at an annual rate of 2.5% in May, remaining above the central’s bank 2% inflation target for a second successive month. The Bank of Japan believes the recent wave of inflation is driven by a temporary surge in energy prices and has kept interest rates low. Earlier this week, the yen plunged to a 24-year low against the dollar.
Toyota recalls electric cars over concerns that their wheels could detach. The company issued a recall for 2,700 bZ4X S.UVs in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Japan because of a risk that the bolts on the car’s wheels could loosen to the point that the wheels could fall off.
Biden administration has agreed to cancel an estimated $6 billion in federal student loan debt for borrowers who have claimed they were defrauded by their college. The administration had previously approved $25 billion in loan forgiveness for 1.3 million borrowers. Many of the borrowers affected by the new agreement have been waiting years for the Department of Education to process their claims under a rule known as borrower defense to repayment. It allows borrowers who believe they were misled by their college, often over inflated job placement rates or the ability to transfer credits, to request federal student loan relief. Biden also announced in April he is considering broader student loan forgiveness for the 43 million Americans who have federal student loan debt, after facing months of pressure from Democrats to cancel $50,000 per borrower.
SALT-cap issue emerges as potential block to Biden economic stimulus measure. As Senate Democrats work on a slimmed-down version of Biden’s long-term economic package, a move to expand the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) looms again as a potential late-stage hurdle. House Democrats representing high-tax states are still prepared to block any deal on a climate, tax-hike and deficit reduction bill if the legislation doesn’t include an expansion of the valuable write-off, known as SALT.
U.S. poised to escalate claim that Mexico violated free-trade pact. The U.S. is preparing to escalate its complaints that Mexico’s state-favoring energy policies violate the nations’ free-trade agreement, reports note, a move that would risk exacerbating tensions between the countries’ governments.
House panel clears FY 2023 Agriculture/FDA spending plan via a vote of 31-26. The full House is expected to act on FY 2023 spending plans in July. But most observers predict Congress will have to clear a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded when FY 2023 begins October 1 as they will be unable to work out differences between House and Senate versions of various appropriations measures by that date.
- Includes $27.2 billion in discretionary funding for USDA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The discretionary funding level would be a $2.1-billion boost compared with FY 2022.
- Spends big on child nutrition programs, funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children at $6 billion and allocating $28 billion to other child nutrition programs, including school meals.
- Includes over $1 billion for conservation operations, $560 million for rural broadband and $1.8 billion for the international assistance Food for Peace program.
- Bars the sale of U.S. farmland to companies fully or partially owned by the governments of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
- Retroactively pays frontline food workers during the pandemic ($50 million to essential grocery workers through the USDA’s Farmworker and Food Worker Relief Grant program).
- Amendment to withhold 30% of the FDA’s funding until it submits a report on the baby formula crisis was voted down.
- Requests USDA conduct an investigation into sexual violence against women in the agricultural workplaces and develop recommendations to incorporate into its programs and pilots.
- Urges USDA and FDA to collaborate on overseeing gene-editing of livestock.
School meal waiver plan returns to House after Senate changes. While the House approved a measure 376-42 that would extend school meal waivers through the summer, the chamber will need to consider the measure again due to slight changes in the Senate to address objections raised by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The Keep Kids Fed Act (S 2089) would extend for the summer and following school year higher reimbursement rates for schools and child feeding sites that were previously put in place. Additional flexibility was added on what can be bought and serve to address supply chain issues. The current program expires June 30.
Fertilizer import ruling. Dept. of Commerce issues final affirmative determinations in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of urea ammonium nitrate (“UAN”) imports from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago (“Trinidad”). Commerce found that imports from Russia are dumped (i.e., sold at less than fair value) at rates ranging from 8.16% to 122.93%, and unfairly subsidized at rates ranging from 6.27% to 9.66%. Commerce also found that imports from Trinidad are dumped at a rate of 111.71% and unfairly subsidized at a rate of 1.83%. Link for details.
The U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent government agency, is conducting a separate investigation to determine whether imports of UAN from Russia and Trinidad materially injure, or threaten material injury to, the U.S. UAN industry. The ITC made an affirmative preliminary determination in August 2021 and is scheduled to make its final determination on Aug. 1, 2022, according to the Dept. of Commerce (others say July 18). If the ITC’s final determination is affirmative, then Commerce will issue AD/CVD orders, which will remain in place for at least five years. Commerce and the ITC initiated their investigations in July 2021 in response to petitions filed by CF Industries through certain of its production facilities.
Facts and figures. Imports of UAN from Russia were at 1,057,120 short tons in 2021 with a value of $262.6 million, while imports from Trinidad and Tobago totaled 835,165 short tons with a value of $231.1 million.
Bill Gates’ purchase of North Dakota farmland has locals ‘livid’: official. An entity with ties to billionaire Bill Gates bought 2,100 acres of potato farmland in northern North Dakota — prompting the state’s top prosecutor to intervene after complaints from local residents. Public records cited by AgWeek show that the Gates-linked Red River Trust bought the farmland from the owners of Campbell Farms, a potato farming group that is headquartered in Grafton, North Dakota, which is about 50 miles from the Canadian border. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring told KFYR that public reaction to the purchase has been largely negative. “I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,” said Goehring. “Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.” Gates’ net worth was pegged by Bloomberg at $113 billion. He has amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, according to the Associated Press. The Microsoft co-founder is considered the largest private owner of farmland in the country with acres across dozens of states, according to last year’s edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nation’s largest landowners. Gates, in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit last year, said his “investment group” was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. Earlier this week, North Dakota State Attorney General Drew Wrigley wrote a letter to Red River Trust notifying it that corporations and limited liability companies were “prohibited from owning or leasing farmland or ranchland in the state of North Dakota.” Wrigley wrote that these entities were also barred from “engaging in farming or ranching.” Link for more.
Billionaire Ken Griffin is moving the global headquarters of his hedge fund firm Citadel from Chicago to Miami, becoming the latest to move out of Illinois following recent exits by Boeing and Caterpillar. Griffin said in a letter to employees viewed by Forbes that he views Florida as a better corporate environment. Citadel said crime in Chicago was making it hard to recruit talent. The firm has 1,000 employees in Illinois, down roughly 10% from two years ago. It cites violence for that decline. Chicago crime rates have been rising, with 797 murders in 2021, up from 772 in 2020, though most violence is concentrated in a few areas of the city. While it is not a direct comparison, Miami-Dade County reported 30 homicide offenses this year through May, down from 48 over the same period last year.
Cotton AWP heads lower. The Adjusted World Price (AWP) for upland cotton declined to 135.95 cents per pound, effective today (June 24), down from 140.47 cents per pound the prior week. Meanwhile, USDA said that Special Import Quota #10 for 50,978 bales of upland cotton will be established June 30, applying to upland cotton purchased not later than Sept. 27 and entered into the U.S. no later than Dec. 26.
Jan. 6 hearing says Trump tried to flip DOJ. Lawmakers investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. capitol laid out Donald Trump’s efforts to turn the Justice Department into his “own personal” law firm in his bid to overturn his presidential election defeat to Joe Biden. At the fifth hearing into its year-long probe of the violence, the panel examined the events at the DOJ the weekend before the January 6, 2021, riot, when Trump was faced with a revolt as he tried to install his own man at the top of the department. Meanwhile, at least six Republican lawmakers asked the White House for pardons after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to testimony former White House officials gave to the January 6 committee, with many suggesting a blanket pardon for anyone involved with the attack.
Personnel: The White House announced five regional USDA appointments: Ronald Guidry, Jr. will be a state executive director for the Louisiana Farm Service Agency; Maureen Wicks will lead FSA in Montana; Mark Gibbons will lead FSA in Utah; Christy Davis will take over Rural Development in Kansas; and Lillian Salerno will lead Rural Development in Texas.
Meanwhile, former House Ag Chair Colin Peterson (D-Minn.) has registered to lobby, according to Politico. Peterson is lobbying on behalf of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association and the Kansas Livestock Association.
Politics: Can Democrats “break away” from an unpopular president? Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report writes: “Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen several polls showing Democratic Senate candidates running either slightly or significantly ahead of President Biden’s job approval ratings in their state. The latest example was an AARP poll in Pennsylvania that showed Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman outpacing Biden’s dismal 36 percent job approval in the state by 14 points, and leading his GOP opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz, 50% to 44%.” Meanwhile, Dave Wasserman, House editor for the Cook Political Report, notes that “Next Tuesday’s House primaries are action-packed. Two sets of incumbents are facing off in Illinois: Democratic Reps. Sean Casten vs. Marie Newman in the suburban Chicago 6th CD, and GOP Rep. Rodney Davis vs. Trump-endorsed Rep. Mary Miller in the Downstate 15th CD. Meanwhile in Mississippi, GOP Reps. Michael Guest (MS-03) and Steven Palazzo (MS-04) are at runoff risk for very different reasons.”
NWS weather outlook: Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding possible for parts of the northern Plains and Upper Midwest today... ...Monsoonal moisture and an approaching cold front to create the threat of heavy rain and instances of flash flooding over portions of the Southwest and southern Rockies through this weekend... ...Stifling heat persists across the South while temperatures also climb for much of the Pacific Northwest.