8/16/2022

Lower from the start of overnight trade again. Corn was steady in the 1-3 cents lower range and soybeans bounced around from 1-12 lower before both were sold off following the 8:30 am open. With a U.S. crop that appears to be getting an ideal finish, including August rain on soybeans, money's path of least resistance is lower. Adding to the downward push is a surprising amount of grain that has been steadily exiting Ukraine and vessels reportedly reaching their destinations unscathed. Over 20 vessels loaded with grain have safely departed Ukrainian ports over the past month. What makes this particularly interesting is that it was originally reported that 16 ships were loaded and ready to depart, that means at least 4 of vessels have been loaded in ports that were assumed to be inoperable. Ships are also scheduled to return to Ukraine. We had another reported export sale this morning with 228,606 tonnes of soybeans for delivery to Mexico during the 2022/2023 marketing year. The USDA crop conditions for the week came in for corn at 57% good/excellent (56% trade, 58% last week, 62% last year) and soybeans at 58% good/excellent (58% trade, 59% week ago, 57% year ago).

Dec corn opened below the 200-day moving average and broke lower out of its short term trend.