Stock Index Futures - A Multi-Year Advance?
Most of the recent economic reports, from both a domestic and global perspective, have strongly suggested that we are in the midst of the early stages of an economic recovery. Renewed bullish sentiment gathered steam when a respected banking industry consulting firm turned bullish on a few financial services companies that had been in a severe bear market for over two years. This was quickly followed by corporate upgrades from several large brokerage firms that were not just in the banking sector, but also in a wide range of industries, including the manufacturing area. The macroeconomic fundamentals seemed to fall into place, as well, at about the same time. An improved global manufacturing theme appeared to be a common thread. The July Institute for Supply Management surprised on the upside by coming at 48.9, when 46.5 had been anticipated.
By Alan Bush
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Marketing Your Corn in 2009 - Part III
In Parts I and II in “Marketing Your Corn in 2009” I had suggested that for Dec-09 corn prices to trade above the $5.00 level this growing season, we would need to see a significant weather problem to threaten this years crop. My advice to growers was to sell 10 – 20% of your crop on rallies above $4.25, push sales to 40% between $4.50 - $4.75 and to get sales up to 65% if Dec-09 corn had traded up to $5.00, while leaving the remaining 35% to market after harvest. If that advice had been followed, a farmer would now have 40% of their crop sold at roughly an average of $4.45 per bushel basis Dec-09 futures, approximately $1.00 above current market prices. (Dec-09 never reached $5.00) Given the dynamic changes to the corn market it’s probably a good time to review this marketing plan as we move forward to this falls harvest.
By Mark Soderberg
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