China Buys U.S. Corn!

A couple weeks ago we had a small rally in corn on a Friday. There were rumors of China buying corn from the United States. The next Monday I read an analysis reporting China did buy one cargo of corn while another one said there was no confirmation. That was the last we heard of China buying corn until yesterday.

Tuesday morning I was reading the daily report from Pro Farmer and saw this story that really got my attention: China makes big corn buys. " China recently purchased between 10 and 12 cargos of corn, mainly from the U.S., as rising Chinese prices and a drop in U.S. corn prices has pushed the spread with Chicago corn prices to a record, according to three trade sources cited by Reuters.

This story from Pro Farmer was just written along with other stories as if it was routine news. I am not sure you could say this is a "game changer" and corn prices are going to see a big rally. However, this is still big news! Plus, I did not read or hear about it anywhere else yesterday. I asked Gordy about it on the air and he said had not seen anything about it either. I guess good or bullish news gets buried!

China buying U.S. corn raises a number of questions. According to the USDA China has 50 percent of the "burdensome " world corn carryover supplies. Remember a couple of years ago the USDA shocked the market by more than doubling China's corn stocks in a monthly report? If China has all that corn why are they buying U.S. corn? Maybe they do not have the corn or it is in such poor condition nobody wants it? Why isn't this being talked about by traders? Am I the only one that thinks this raises questions about the USDA corn stocks estimate in China? Am I the only one that thinks this is big news?