BASIC & RECENT MARKET INFO

World Free-On-Board Grain & Oilseed Prices for May 2, 2026

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 49,499, +269 points for the week. Crude oil settled at $102.5, +7.62. Dollar Index settled at 98.21, -0.30. Baltic Dry Index (a shipping freight-cost index) settled at 2,730, +65. Corn July futures settled at $4.80¼, +16¾¢ for the week. December corn se

Tidbits President Trump reportedly had a 90 minute phone conversation with President Putin on Friday. No news about the topics discussed. President Trump posted on Truth social: "Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States. The Tariff will be increased to 25%. It is fully understood and agreed that, if they pro

Tidbits July corn traded above major technical resistance at $4.80 yesterday to $4.83½ and settled at $4.80¼. December corn finally traded above $5.00 to make a high of $5.01¾ and then settled at $4.98¾, up 4½ on the day. November beans made a new high for the second consecutive day trading to $11.84½ and settling at $11.82¾, up 9¾¢. It is technically friendly that both settled, not only higher on the day after making new highs but also much closer to the high than the low.

Tidbits November beans and December corn made their 2026 highs on Thursday 30 April. $11.78 and $4.99¾ respectively. The price of soybeans continues to rise today, exceeding $11.79. Japan’s Central Bank intervened in the foreign exchange market with buying yesterday. It was the first such intervention since July 2024. The yen buying raised its value versus the dollar by a massive 3.1%. The yen had its strongest day since 2022. Japan is the fourth largest importer of American

Tidbits The Federal Reserve voted 8 to 4 to hold the target interest rate at 3.5-3.75% for the third consecutive meeting, as expected. Energy markets are sharply higher today amid stalled Iranian peace talks and renewed threats of further military action. Crude oil has risen significantly, and soybean oil follows. U.S. crude inventories fell by 6.2 million barrels the past week, while the market expected it to be almost steady. Crude oil production rose a bit, while imports d

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 If you have any May positions, your cash grain and futures brokers want you to liquidate or roll all May positions before the close today. The Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada will announce this afternoon their decision on interest rates. The market expects no changes by either central bank. Crude oil: After nearly 60 years of membership, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced yesterday it is leaving OPEC. Angola left OPEC in 2024, Ecuador left in 2020, and Qa

Trend lines and price points are a big part of technical analysis. Please study the 30 minute bar gold chart below and try to understand these basic principles. Don't hesitate to email us with any questions. Ethanol: Ethanol plants are already using 25% of Brazil’s corn crop and expanding every year. For pertinent news and fundamental grain market information, sign-up for a 30 day, no cost, no obligation, no phone call subscription to Wright on the Market news sent to your em

Tidbits Tomorrow is the last trading day before delivery notices are posted for May futures. That usually means prices yesterday and today would be lower because all long May futures positions and basis contracts must be rolled or liquidated before the close Wednesday. Soy crush margins moved to fresh all-time highs at $3.52 per bushel, with bean oil contributing 52% of the value, which is still a historically high ratio. Soybean oil (and cotton) reached new highs last week.

Tidbits Iran: President Trump said yesterday Iran could telephone if it wants to negotiate an end to their two-month war, stressing that Tehran can never have a nuclear weapon, while Iran's foreign minister returned to ‌Pakistan for talks despite the absence of U.S. counterparts where he said Iran will never give-up its right to have nuclear weapons. Analysts say all of Iran’s oil storage will be full on Wednesday and they will have to shut down oil production. Global fe

World Free-On-Board Grain & Oilseed Prices for April 25, 2026

The daily corn continuation chart will roll over to the July contract tonight, and it is priced about 8.50 cents higher than the May contract which closed Friday at 455.0. It appears that corn is marking the 3rd up leg of a bigger 3rd up leg - this is Elliot wave analysis. Elliot waves are constructed of small waves making up larger waves. Think of a microscope or telescope that portrays smaller or larger visual pictures. The last high to the left was priced at 505.25 - this

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 49,231, -217 points for the week. Crude oil settled at $94.88, +9.31. Dollar Index settled at 98.51, +0.28. Baltic Dry Index (a shipping freight-cost index) settled at 2,665, +98. Corn May futures settled at $4.55, +6¼¢ for the week. December corn settl

Tidbits Mexico is building a land-bridge between its two oceans that is already partially working and nearing completed. It will not replace the Panama Canal, but it could carve out a meaningful niche in global trade, especially for North American supply chains. A major infrastructure project is designed to be a land-based alternative (often called a “dry canal”) to the Panama Canal. It is the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), a multimodal rail-and

Tidbits Iran: President Trump sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner yesterday afternoon to Islamabad ‌for talks with Iran mediated by Pakistan on Saturday. The Trump administration reported it has seen "some progress" from the Iranian side in the last couple of days. Vice ‌President ⁠JD Vance is ready to travel to Pakistan to join talks if they prove successful. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was expected in Islamabad last evening to discuss proposals for restarting p

Tidbits The weather forecast is predicting limited rainfall through next week for Western Kansas, Eastern Colorado, and Nebraska with no rain in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. The update to the Drought Monitor yesterday morning shows 70% of the U.S. winter wheat crop in drought. That is the largest since 2023 and the largest drought area for this time of the growing season since 2022. Total global grains production is expected to set a record during this marketing season,

Tidbits Flash Sale: Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 130,000 mts of old crop corn to unknown. Crops Survey: The USDA plans to survey more farmers for some of its key U.S. crop reports ​following a drop in the response rate for its March 31 plantings report, being at 37.6%, down ​from 44.3% last year and the lowest on record for that survey. The USDA faced criticism over the reliability of its data ​after making unprecedented increases in January to corn acrea

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 Yesterday at 4:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time, President Trump announced: “Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal. I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Block