Grain Marketing Education, News & Strategies

Tidbits Today at 11 AM Central, the USDA will release its Actual Planted acres and Quarterly Grain Stocks Reports. The USDA reported total corn disappearance from 1 December 2025 to 1 March 2026 was 4.258 billion bushels, up 350 million bushels from a year ago. Winter demand is always more than warmer weather demand. The market expects corn disappearance from 1 March to 1 June 2026 to be 3.632 billion bushels, up 128 million bushels from a year ago. Export inspections for the

Tidbits All CBOT July basis contracts and long July futures contracts need to be rolled or liquidated today to avoid any chance of being assigned delivery through the CBOT. Weather: With all the hot weather in Europe the past two weeks and the heat coming into the crop areas of the U.S. this weekend and predicted to stay over the next two weeks, we were surprised to see corn and soybeans futures drop 4 to 5¢ after opening Sunday evening. A brutal Western European hea

World Free-On-Board Grain & Oilseed Prices for June 27, 2026

Tidbits Iran: Fox News reported the U.S. military launched a new round of airstrikes against Iranian targets Saturday afternoon after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) attacked a second commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a senior U.S. official. The strikes are targeting Iranian air defenses, drone storage facilities, cruise missiles, targeting radars, minelaying capabilities and surface-to-air missile systems. Despite this, media reports sugges

It's our weekly U.S. grain market analysis and outlook for corn, soybeans and wheat, including traders positioning, basis bids tracking, crush margins, weekly news wrap-up and comments. The Dow Jones Index settled on Friday at 51,876, +311 points for the week. Crude oil settled at $70.24, -7.30. Dollar Index settled at 101.37, +0.61. Baltic Dry Index (a shipping freight-cost index) settled at 2,524, -198. Corn July futures settled at $4.12¾, -4¾¢ for the week. December corn s

Rolling HTA Contracts A client came up short on bushels to fill a July HTA contract for June delivery. The merchandiser suggested the client roll the portion of the undelivered bushels from July to November and deliver the bushels this fall. Our client agreed. He was surprised to learn his new November HTA price was higher than his July HTA. He asked how that could happen? The gain or loss on the roll from July to November has nothing to do with the price of the July HTA, w

Tidbits July CBOT Options expire today because this is the last Friday of the month with at least two business days the following week. Every corn futures contract from July 2026 through July 2027 made a new contract low yesterday and closed higher than the high for the previous day. That is what technicians call a “key reversal,” a fairly reliable indication of a price trend change. In recent weeks, corn futures contracts made two “hook reversals,” which is a new low followe

Tidbits Acres: Matt Bennet of Agmarket.net expects actual planted corn acres to be less than the March Intentions due to high fertilizer prices, supply challenges, and excessive moisture across regions of the United States. However, the firm says rallying corn prices during the spring kept the reduction from being more significant. Bennett says any acres lost in corn most likely shifted directly to soybeans. The firm believes combined corn and soybean acres are at 180.2 milli

This is a continuation of articles about the use of put options on commodity futures as a primary marketing tool to lock-in a minimum price or as a price “enhancer” of forward contracts or HTA contracts. Here in August, we have been discussing the process to maximize the income from the sale of a previously purchased put option. Since put options increase in value as the futures price declines, the first objective to maximize put income is to sell the put when the underlying

This a continuation of weekly articles about the use of put options on commodity futures as a primary marketing tool to lock-in a minimum price or as a price “enhancer” of forward contracts or HTA contracts. This article discusses the process to maximize the income from the sale of a put option. Since put options increase in value as the futures contract price declines, the first objective to maximize put income is to sell the put when the underlying futures contract price is

Grain market summary of price outlook, seasonal situation, fundamental & technical analysis with our recommendations for corn, soybeans and wheat (Soft Red Winter, Hard Red Winter & Spring), also for inputs like fuel and fertilizer for past week Wednesday to Tuesday. Read about our approach to this report. We provide three different marketing plans (in order of decreasing our preference). The marketing decision is yours to make, obviously you can mix those plans, change the s

Tidbits July CBOT options expire Friday. All long July futures and July basis contracts must be liquidated or rolled no later than Monday to avoid any possibility of being assigned delivery. July corn was a bit stronger than September corn yesterday. That is good if you have July futures or basis contracts to roll to September. Flash sales: Yesterday morning, the USDA reported the sale of 30,000 mt of old crop corn and 70,000 mts of new crop corn to Mexico. Livestock: The num

It's our weekly U.S. grain market analysis and outlook for corn, soybeans and wheat, including traders positioning, basis bids tracking, crush margins, weekly news wrap-up and comments. The Dow Jones Index settled on Friday at 51,565, +362 points for the week, then 51,712 on Monday. Crude oil settled at $77.54, -6.75, then to $74.82 on Monday. Dollar Index settled at 100.76, +0.95, then to 101.02 on Monday. Baltic Dry Index (a shipping freight-cost index) settled at 2,722, -9

Tidbits Brazil: Safras & Mercado lowered their Brazilian corn production forecast 200,000 mts to 139.9 million mts, still slightly above the USDA estimate of 138 million mts. IMEA reports the 2nd corn harvest in Mato Grosso has reached 21% vs. only 14% a year ago, however behind the historical average of 23%. AgRural reports that across Brazil 2nd crop harvest has reached 16% just above the year ago pace of 13%. Argentine corn harvest has reached 48% while the Buenos Aires Gr

The continuation daily soft wheat chart will roll to the September contract this week. This is the process wherein the majority of the fund money flattens their July contracts, then enters the September, either long or short. The September contract is trading about a dime higher than July. The market has so far backfilled 62.5 percent of the entire rally which began last January. The 62% Fibonacci correction is frequently an area on the chart that attracts buying after a dow

Tidbits The Corn Belt weather a week from now is going to be hot and wet. Iran: President Trump threatened to restart war with Iran on Sunday even as Vice President JD Vance met Iranian officials for the first talks under an interim peace deal that was overshadowed by Tehran's announcement it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz. Q&A: Inflation Hyperinflation: Gilbert asked when will we see hyperinflation? Economists follow Philip Cagan's classic definition of hyperinfla

World Free-On-Board Grain & Oilseed Prices for June 20, 2026

Tidbits The Heart of the Midwest is having some rough weather this morning. Be careful and be safe! Weekly Basis: Because Friday was a Federal holiday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) did not issue its weekly Commitment of Traders (COT) report. The COT will be issued on Monday afternoon. Therefore, our Weekly Basis report will be issued Tuesday morning. December corn made its high for the year on this date in 2023 at $6.29¾. The U.S. new crop corn carryo

Tidbits Baker Hughes reported there were 563 oil and gas drilling rigs in operation last week in the USA. That is 1 more than last week and 9 more than a year ago. Canada had 186 rigs drilling this past week, 6 more than the previous week and 47 more than a year ago! CGB at Gladstone Bluff, Illinois (on The River) Friday evening compared to last week: Corn spot delivery: -16N (16 under July), 2¢ weaker = $4.02 Fall delivery: -32Z (32 under December), steady = $4.12 Soybean

Tidbits The CBOT futures markets are closed today for Juneteenth Day. They will reopen Sunday evening at usual times. Flash sales: Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sales of: 132,000 mts of new crop soybeans to China 120,000 mts of new crop soybeans to unknown 285,775 mt of new crop corn to Mexico Algeria bought between 800-850,000 mts of milling wheat yesterday at $265/mt CFR (Cost and Freight) for August shipment. The grain is likely sourced from the Black Sea and E