Grains Matter Chatter – Episode 229
Monday was a mostly positive day for our markets. Harvest corn closed up 1 3/4, spot soybeans closed down 3 3/4, spot winter wheat closed up 1 1/2 and spot spring wheat closed up 6 3/4. In the overnight trade corn and winter wheat are negative, soybeans are positive and spring wheat is mixed. Oil closed up $1.08 yesterday at $68.37 per barrel. It is weaker in trading this morning with it now valued at $68.10 per barrel. Our dollar had a high of $0.709 US before noon yesterday and a low of $0.705 US in the overnight trading. It has rebounded just a bit since then with it currently valued this morning at $0.706 US.
Soybean prices struggled again yesterday with some technical resistance once they reached the $10 per bushel mark. They were unable to maintain this level and pulled back as the day went on. The 50 day moving average is currently $10.02 per bushel and is coming lower every trading day.
Today the USDA releases their monthly WASDE report. It is widely expected that this report should be supportive for the corn market. Strong corn exports this fall are well ahead of previous USDA projections. The ethanol grind is also utilising more corn then both last year and the USDA’s projections. It is good to see the demand side staying strong as we must remember that US Farmers produced their 3rd largest corn crop ever this year.
On the soybean side this could be the report that the USDA increases yield prospects for South America. Many other analysts have recently increased their projections for both corn and soybean production for the current crop year. If the USDA does increase their projections this could be very negative for soybean prices. Of course we never can fully predict what the USDA will do and how the markets will react.
Winter wheat planted acres in Ontario decreased this fall down to 1.008 million acres. This is down almost 9% from the 1.1 million acres planted last year but it is still above the 932,000 acres planted in the fall of 2022.