Obama knows his time is limited. I mean let’s face it he wasn’t exactly dealt the best hand when he came into office.  He has not created jobs and he knew he could not do this without help from Congress. If there is no money to spend than there is no one to hire! He should offer incentives to companies to hire from the government. Tax breaks and more write-offs will bring more companies to the U.S. instead of having them go abroad. Greed created this so give the greed back to where it started from. The companies have more money than the government and the administration wants to tax them further. I don’t get it!

From Bloomberg: Cotton futures fell the most in more than two weeks after a report showed overseas buyers scrapped orders for supplies from the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter. Orange juice rose.

In the week ended Aug. 18, canceled orders for upland cotton exceeded sales by 230,308 bales for the current crop year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. A bale weighs 480 pounds (218 kilograms). That’s the ninth time in 10 weeks that there were more canceled orders than sales.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-25/cotton-declines-as-u-s-sales-are-canceled-orange-juice-rises.html

Again, please do not be fooled about earnings. Most companies are doing well because of costs savings and raising their prices. The consumer is still struggling and with today’s news that Germany had a bad GDP announcement, things could get more complicated. Germany was supposed to be the key factor that would help the eurozone get back on their feet.

The 6-10 day precipitation map shows no real change with a moderate amount of rains added to the Dakotas. The South remains the problem with anything south of I-80 still seeing spotty fields. There is plenty of time for beans to recover and develop their third bean per pod but corn remains a very questionable situation heading into the WASDE report.

Hedge funds and owners of companies seem to purchasing bank preferred stocks. This is what they did in 2008 when the market fell 700 points and of course because of the financial crisis. Some are yielding as high as 10% because of their prices spiraling downward over the past few weeks. The market is up due to large companies testing the waters and people buying back their shorts. Do not be fooled by today!

Cotton prices fell back yesterday as again weak export sales were reported. Net export sales reported by USDA were 40,600 running bales. Old crop commitments again dropped, with more cancellations. The marketing year ends this Sunday, so any unshipped sales are being rolled to new crop delivery.

How many times can the financial companies get sued before they shut them down. I mean really! Between Goldman Sachs and UBS they have probably shelled out billions to agencies, tax payers, and investors. Maybe they have more money than the government and they do not care. Maybe they do not care if they are sued because they make so much money that settling is worth it.

The news out of Texas continues to be bad:

From NPR:

“The drought has spread over much of the southern U.S., leaving Oklahoma the driest it has been since the 1930s and setting records from Louisiana to New Mexico. But the situation is especially severe in Texas, which trails only California in agricultural productivity.

McGee is still watering another variety of corn, cotton and sorghum but the loss of nearly one-sixth of his acres after spending so much on irrigation weighs on him.

“Kind of depressing,” the 34-year-old farmer said. “You use that much of a resource and nothing to show for it. This year, no matter what you do, it’s not quite enough.”

About 70 percent of Texas rangeland and pastures are classified as in very poor condition, which means there has been complete or near complete crop failure or there’s no food for grazing livestock. The crop and livestock losses could be the worst the state has seen — perhaps twice the previous single-year record of $4.1 billion set in 2006, said David Anderson, an economist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service.”

Looking at the above map, you see a mild increase in the expected rains about 5-7 days out with the end of July looking wetter today than at any point in the last week. Heat remains through the weekend then it moderates to a degree with most of the major growing areas looking for upper 80s with the SE growing region looking the hottest with temps expected in the 90s 5 of the next 10 days. Rain events will focus on the northern growing regions with Des Moines looking at 3 rain events by month end while Cincinnati looking at 3 rain events. Minneapolis is looking at 4 rain events showing the rains are focused north, not south. Moving into S. IL, MO, KS, AR and LA remain a problem with crop ratings in all those states expected to take another dive on Monday’s report. Overall it is less threatening but not good yet for crops.

Why is everyone surprised that companies are reporting profits? They have had 3 years to restructure, meaning layoffs and the opportunity to pay debt down. Financials firms were allowed to write-off bad debt which no one knows the extent. The issue is when the derivatives market is figured out the amount of money lost could be bigger than the actual deficit. If people with PhD’s do not understand how they work than it will take years to have a real grasp on the situation. The debt issue could be coming to a conclusion today as the House Speaker and the President work out a 3 trillion dollar deficit cut and raise the debt limit.