Thursday, February 26, 2026, 7:05 am

Wednesday was a mostly positive day for our markets.  Spot corn closed up 2 3/4, spot soybeans closed up 8 3/4, spot winter wheat closed down 1 3/4 and spot spring wheat closed up 4.  In the overnight trade corn is positive, soybeans are mixed and the wheat sector is negative.  Oil closed down $0.21 yesterday at $65.42 per barrel.  It is weaker in trading again this morning with it now valued at $64.33 per barrel.  Our dollar started out yesterday morning at $0.730 US and then trended higher going up to $0.732 US very late in the trading day.  It has pulled back just a bit this morning with it currently valued at $0.731 US.

Yesterday the corn market closed above its 50 day moving average.  This is the first time that this has occurred since the market fell lower with the USDA report on January 12^th that reported higher production totals for last year in the US.  Since that time the market has regained about one half of the losses incurred that day.  Of course the carry stocks level of over 2 billion bushels will keep a lid on prices going forward.  We must also remember that the bright point for the corn market this year is the strong export pace out of the US.  Locally strong basis levels due to the lower production last fall has helped our prices.

The EPA in the US submitted their recommendations for an updated biofuel blending mandate yesterday to the White House.  This recommendation is rumoured to be very friendly for both increased ethanol and biodiesel usage.  It is expected that the current administration will announce within the next month what the new mandate will actually be.

Weekly ethanol production in the US decreased by 0.5% last week to come in at 1.113 million barrels per day.  Ethanol stocks increased last week by 0.2% up to 25.6 million barrels.  Blender demand was steady with weekly exports decreasing from 177 thousand barrels per day down to 144 thousand.  If this production level was maintained over the full year they would utilize 5.7 million bushels of corn which is slightly higher than current USDA projections.