Dairy sues bookeeper

An Idaho dairy has filed a lawsuit against its former bookkeeper, claiming she stole $700,000 over the seven years she served as the dairy’s chief financial officer.

In addition to the possible civil penalties in Jerome County, Stephanie Diane Wells, 34, has been criminally charged in Gooding County with 19 felony counts of grand theft. According to an affidavit in the case, the owner of Box Canyon Dairy in Wendell suspected Wells of embezzling money when he found a $10,000 Box Canyon check made out to a construction company. When he called the company, they said the check was payment for work done at Wells’ home.

Court documents say the dairy owner would sign blank checks for Wells to pay the company’s invoices. It accuses Wells of altering QuickBooks transactions to show the money was used to pay bills for Box Canyon.

The suit alleges Wells and her husband took the money primarily to pay off credit card debt. It alleges she forged signatures of dairy principals on checks and manipulated and falsified financial records, MagicValley.com reports. Additionally, some money is believed to have been deposited into bank accounts held by Wells.

CTC asking for increase in budget

(Futures and Options World) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission wants a budget of $315 million for fiscal 2020, a 12 percent increase compared with fiscal 2019, that includes $284 million for operational funding and $31 million for relocation of three regional offices.

Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee the funding would cover oversight of clearinghouses and expansion of a stress test program.

Corn analysis

Corn closed the week $.20 lower. Last week, private exporters announced sales of 107,000 mts of corn to Columbia for 2018/19 marketing year.

U.S. corn exports last week were 38.5 million bushels, in line with market expectations but were down from the previous week’s 53.8 million bushels and were nearly half of last year’s 74.7 million bushels. Inspections were also the lowest in seven weeks.

Exports will need to average 37 million bushels/week in order to reach the USDA’s 2.300 billion bushel export projection.

In the weekly crop progress report; U.S. corn planting advanced to 23 percent complete versus 25 percent expected (23-30 percent range), 15 percent last week, 36 percent last year and 46 percent average.

In the monthly supply/demand report; U.S. old crop corn ending stocks were raised from the April stocks number of 2.035 billion bushels to 2.095 billion bushels. The new crop ending stocks were placed at 2.485 billion bushels. World ending stocks for 2019/2020 were 314.71 million metric tonnes, above the April stocks number of 314.01 million tonnes.

Strategy and outlook

Producers should use options to re-own and manage risk. Weather related rallies are selling opportunities.

Soybeans analysis

Soybeans closed the week $.33 lower. Last week, private exporters announced sale of 369,000 metric tons of soybeans for delivery to an unknown destination.

U.S. soybean exports, for the week ended 5/02/19 were 22.1 million bushels, at the top end of market expectations of and were up from the previous week’s 18.6 mb. While they were above last year’s same-week exports of 19.7 million bushels, inspections were still well below the roughly 34.9 million bushels/week inspections will need to average through the end of August to reach the USDA’s 1.875 billion bushel export projection.

U.S. soybean planting is now only 6 percent complete versus 8 percent expected (6-13 percent range), 3 percent last week, 14 percent last year and 14 percent average.

In the monthly supply/demand report; U.S. old crop soybean ending stocks were raised from the April stocks number of 895 million bushels to 995 million bushels. The new crop ending stocks were placed at 970 million bushels. World ending stocks for 2019/2020 were 113.09 million metric tonnes, above the April stocks number of 107.36 million tonnes.

Strategy and outlook

Producers should use options to re-own and manage risk. Weather related rallies are selling opportunities.

This material has been prepared by a sales or trading employee or agent of Midwest Market Solutions and is, or is in the nature of, a solicitation. This material is not a research report prepared by Midwest Market Solution’s Research Department. The risk of loss in trading futures and/or options is substantial and each investor and/or trader must consider whether this is a suitable investment. Past performance, whether actual or indicated by simulated historical tests of strategies, is not indicative of future results. Trading advice is based on information taken from trades and statistical services and other sources that Midwest Market Solutions believes are reliable. We do not guarantee that such information is accurate or complete and it should not be relied upon as such.

Brian Hoops can be reached at (605) 660-1155.