10/2/2020

More Covid-19 concerns overnight at President Trump and his wife were announced to have tested positive.  That had all the markets trading sharply lower overnight, but recovered from their lows into the close today.  We had more bean sales announced this morning of 264,000 metric tons of beans to China and 252,000 metric tons to Unknown.  That was encouraging with China heading into Holiday and got the bean market to bounce into green figures for a while this morning before fading and finishing down 3 cents.  Corn also got back to unchanged at one point this morning before finishing down 3.  For the week corn was 14 and beans were up 18 due to the bullish stocks report on Wednesday.  Harvest pressure is likely keeping a lid on beans and keeping us from getting back to the highs.  Corn did make a new high for the move off the report but harvest is about to ramp up more on corn as well next week.  We have our monthly USDA report next Friday, so buckle in for that.  That report should be very interesting as it will use our fresh USDA stocks numbers.  Bean basis is backing off as harvest is in full swing and space it getting tight the elevators.  I would expect that to continue as bean yields seem a bit better than expected almost everywhere.  The farmer is moving the majority of the beans to town off the combine, which is also adding more pressure.  Corn basis hangs tight for now as the farmer remains a reluctant seller as space was freed up at home due to not storing the beans on farm.  If the market continues to rally and corn starts moving to town, basis will likely have the same tendency.  Have a good weekend and be safe as harvest moves along very rapidly.