Tuesday was a positive day for our markets. Spot corn closed up 6 1/4, spot soybeans closed up 18 3/4, spot winter wheat closed up 3 1/4 and spot spring wheat closed up 2. The markets were closed yesterday for the holiday and do not open up until 9:30 am today. Oil closed up $0.73 on Tuesday at $71.72 per barrel. It is stronger in trading again this morning with it now valued at $72.78 per barrel. On Tuesday our dollar traded between a low of $0.694 US and a high of $0.697 US with it closing out at $0.695 US. It has eased back a bit in the overnight trading with it currently valued this morning at $0.693 US.
Our markets closed out 2024 on the positive side. Hopefully this will be a good sign for what will take place over the coming year. When looking at the complete year nearby corn futures are 11 3/4 cents lower today than they were one year ago. Soybeans are down $2.80 per bushel on the CBOT year over year. Both of these markets were negative for much of the year before rebounding some over the last few weeks.
Weather in South America is in the news. Steady ample rains over much of Brazil is keeping their farmers happy. This is also giving the crop production forecasters ammunition to keep their projections very high for the current crop growing. This morning I have seen an article talking about how strong the current corn crop is.
Currently parts of Argentina are in a dry spell. Weather forecasts have this dry spell extending well into the current month. This could be adding some risk premium in our markets and is leading to the current strength. We should point out though that even if the production for corn and soybeans is decreased some in Argentina the record strong production in Brazil will more than make up for any shortfalls.