1/29/2024

Jan 29, 2024


The market offered little to get excited about on Monday.  The only fresh headline we had was soybean imports into the U.S. starting a couple months earlier than usual but it was enough for the managed money crowd to go forward with another round of shorting grains and grain spreads.  After tightening to a nickel carry, the March:May soybean spread is back out to 10 cents within a couple sessions.  We also saw a fresh round of 8-month lows on most active soybean contracts.  Weekly export inspection totals were mid-range for both corn and soybeans with 902k tonnes of corn and 890k tonnes of soybeans shipped last week.  Soybean shipment pace slipped further and is now 68 million bushels behind the USDA target versus 53 million bushels behind the prior week.  Corn shipment pace added a little surplus, now 18 million bushels ahead of their required pace versus 17 million last week.  There was some corn export business done last week and corn has a decent shot at hitting the USDA forecast but the concerning part for corn is that while our futures market continues to drive lower, basis has not improved.

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Feb 10, 2026
It was USDA report day today and it turned out to be a yawner.  The markets never really reacted to the report, and the grains finished the day about where they started with corn unchanged and beans up 12 on the day.  US corn carryout was pegged at 2.127 billion bushels vs the average trade guess of 2.227 billion.  World corn carryout was placed at 288.98 MMT vs the average trade guess of 290.48 MMT. 
Jan 12, 2026
Well, the USDA report had a bit of a surprise today and not in a good way.  Not only did they increase the 2025 corn yield, from 186.0 to 186.5, they also increased Harvest Acres from 90 million to 91.3 million.  That raised the total corn production to 17.021 billion, up an additional 269 million bushels from their previous estimate.  U.S. Ending Stocks are now estimated at 2.227 bbu, vs. 2.209 in Dec.  Report trade guesses were at 1.97 bbu.
Nov 14, 2025
It was USDA report day today and overall, it was bearish for both corn and beans.  Corn Yield was only reduced by .7 bpa down to 186 bpa.  The market was expecting closer to 184 bpa.  Corn production is estimated at 16.752 billion vs 16.814 billion in September.  They raised exports 100 million, which is debatable, but possible.  Ending stocks on corn were estimated at 2.154 billion bushels, which is up 44 million from September and about 29 million more than the market expected.