7/15/2021

Corn and soybean trade was quiet overnight and throughout the day, staying within the relatively moderate daily ranges of 10 cents in corn and 20 cents in soybeans.  A lot of focus has been on put on the sudden return of hot and dry weather to the western corn belt with most wondering if the eastern corn belt can make up for it.  In my opinion, for whatever that is worth, given the current conditions at this stage of the game, the eastern corn belt can still do that.  Out of the top five corn producing states, Minnesota is the only one trade is looking at to suffer a significant yield loss due to lack of precipitation, the other 4 are in fine shape.  NOPA soybean crush for June was reported today, posting a number of 152.41 mln bushels, well below the average trade guess of 159.48 and the low estimate of 155.5.  This was the lowest monthly volume since June of 2019.  Processors saw tighter supplies and higher raw material cost as an opportunity to perform service and maintenance.  The weekly export sales for last week didn't offer much for excitement.  Routine sales of 139k tonnes of old crop corn and 22k tonnes of old crop beans; both on the bottom side of the estimates.  New crop sales were poor with 133k tonnes of corn and 126k tonnes of wheat both below the low estimate.  New crop soybeans crept into their target range with 291k tonnes sold.