Highlights
Russian forces continue to hit port infrastructure and damaged a cargo terminal in Odessa. Over the last 10 days, 26 port facilities have been hit in Ukraine.
It came to our attention yesterday midday that troubled PacWest Bank was going to be absorbed by the Banc of California. The deal was done two days before it became common knowledge. Here is the press release from the 25th which we did not see nor did anyone we know talk or write about it:
"The Banc of California announced it would buy PacWest Bancorp, the parent of Pacific Western Bank, in an all-stock transaction on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, bringing an end to three months of speculation if PacWest would be able to survive on its own."
The fact the merger was a done deal before the news was made public may mean the news had no impact on the market yesterday. The stock market closed lower yesterday after 9 straight daily gains and CBOT took a nasty hit just as we saw the news made Roger think the bank news was the culprit, but maybe it was not, especially since the news was supposedly public on the 25th.
August soybeans made a contract high $15.80¾ yesterday. It was the 4th contract high in the past 7 days. However, the settlement was 58¾¢ off the high & down 14¼¢ lower on the day.