02/09/26 Afternoon CommStock Report – Command Performance

There is no question as to who calls the tune in every sector or subject today domestically and geopolitically. A Truth Social comment from President Trump gets immediate attention. What he says may not make broad sense, but it makes sense to him and commands attention. Markets respond. His comment that he wanted China to add another 8 mmts of US soybeans to their first tranche of purchases brought an immediate response from the market. For good reason, the trade thought that they were done buying for the time being as the Brazilian harvest took precedence. The background info was that China reportedly found out about Trumps command that he wanted them to buy another 8 mmts of soybeans when we did. That would mean that they had no advance warning and thus taken no preparation so was a surprise to them too. Would they comply without reciprocal concessions and what might they be? They thought that they had complied with the previous agreement for 12 mmts and were ready to buy cheaper Brazilian soybeans. Marketwise, timing-wise this makes no sense. Yet, we have all come to know that what makes traditional sense may not be the relative factor as…