09/19/2023 Geopolitics Takes Center Stage at UN Today and Not Without Ag Implications

On the Grains: Overnight markets are soft again as harvest picks up steam and basis softens. Yesterday the national average basis for corn and soybeans declined by 3 and 4 cents, respectively. After yesterday’s close the weekly crop condition ratings from NASS didn’t decline any more than expected Premiums for spot delivery over post-Oct. 1 “new crop” delivery are rapidly disappearing. World leaders are gathering in New York this week, the UN’s biggest conclave of the year to discuss issues ranging from collective efforts to thwart climate change to the war in Ukraine. That topic has Ag market implications. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy will address the gathering in person this year rather than remotely, as last year. President Putin of Russia and Xi of China will be conspicuous by their absence. Biden is set to speak this morning with the only guidance on what he’ll say from White House National Security advisor Jake Sullivan summed up as “using American leadership to solve the world’s problems” without further comment on which problems will be included. Of note, Sullivan also said that “on the sidelines” of the General Assembly, Biden will join the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in the…