BASIC & RECENT MARKET INFO

Tidbits Interest Rate: Members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted 9 to 3 to lower the benchmark Fed Funds rate by a quarter point to a new target range of 3.5% to 3.75%. One vote was to lower the policy rate by half percent, while two votes supported no change. Post meeting comments included that the Federal Reserve will buy $40 billion worth of U.S. treasury bills over the next 30 days to put more money in circulation; the Fed expects one rate cut in 2026 and

Tidbits The USDA  will issue its first S&D in two months on Friday, 14 November. The biggest question is what will the corn yield be? Estimates: StoneX: 186 Dr. Cordonnier: 181 Pro Farmer: 182.7 S&P Global: 189.1 Farm Journal: 178.5 Informa: 185 Bloomberg: 185 ADM Investor Services: 180   Note that all of those estimates at 185 or more serve clients who are grain merchants or end users. ADM Investor Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of ADM but supposedly operates independ

Tidbits S&D: The USDA is not expected to release the October WASDE report tomorrow, but trade estimates were collected. The average estimate for U.S. corn production is 16.632 billion bushels with the yield of 184.8 bpa. The September WASDE report showed corn production at 16.814 billion bushels with a yield of 186.7 bpa. U.S. soybean production's average estimate is 4.267 billion bushels with a yield at 53.1 bpa, compared to 4.301 billion bushels and 53.5 bpa in September. U

Tidbits Mexican Corn: The USDA attaché to Mexico sees their 2025/26 corn crop up 8% from last year at 25 million mts (USDA 24.8). Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 100,593 mts of 2025 crop corn and 22,354 mts of 2026 crop corn to Mexico. PMIs: Composite (Manufacturing & Services) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was reported for: USA at 53.6 vs 54.1 expected Europe at 51.2 vs 51.1 expected Great Britain at 51.0 vs 52.9 expected Australia at 52.1 vs 50.4 expect

Tidbits Flash sale: Yesterday morning the USDA announced the sale of 320,068 mts of 2025 crop corn sold to Mexico. Screwworm: Mexico confirmed a new case of New World Screwworm less than 70 miles from the U.S. border, the nearest detection to date. This species of screwworm is so dangerous because its maggots eat living flesh whereas other maggots eat only dead flesh. Argentina has removed export taxes on all grains until October 31, plus beef and poultry, to boost foreign sa

Q&A: SAF & Biofuel Question from a client: "19 Sept 2025 Good morning, Roger,          Which is the best way to produce SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel), corn, soybeans or crop residue?    Just a few miles away they keep talking about building a SAF plant that will use crop residue, bad idea in my opinion. This is not environmentally friendly or sustainable. Removing crop residue also removes nutrients of which you must replace, and that is just for starters, the negatives go

Tidbits Trade talks:  President Trump did talk yesterday morning with China’s President Xi. This is what Trump had to say after the call:  The soybean market was not impressed. November beans settled 12¢ lower yesterday and at the lowest closing price since 11 August.   Flash sale:  Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 206,460 mts of 2025 crop corn to unknown.   Also yesterday, Sec. of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins announced Taiwan agreed to purchase $10 billion wo

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Tidbits The budget bill signed into law by President Trump yesterday afternoon has significant updates to the Section 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit. Here is the status based on available information we have gleaned from multiple sources and is not yet official until the bureaucrats say it is: Extension of the Credit:  Section 45Z credit is extended through December 31, 2029, which financially supports the production of low-carbon transportation fuels, including biodiesel a

Tidbits At 11 AM Central Time today the USDA will release the most important reports of the year. The Grain Stocks report will set the wheat carryover for old crop and the carryin for the new crop marketing year. Those numbers will never change significantly and are unlikely to change at all. The stocks reported for corn and soybeans will be what we have left for the last three months of the corn and soybean marketing years. It will give us a good idea of what the old crop ca

Tidbits New contract lows were set in corn yesterday. July set it at $4.08 and December hit a low at $4.21. The July soybean contract traded down 21½¢ to settle at $10.25¼ and November finished down 18½¢ to settle the day at $10.18½. Soybean meal and soybean oil were lower on the day. The seasonal trend is a tough one to fight with. The Argentine province of Buenos Aires received snow yesterday for the first time in 18 years. Brazil’s  state of Paraná reported widespread fros

Tidbits Corey Lavinsky, a biofuel  analyst with S&P Global, reported yesterday morning the EPA proposed to reduce the value of RINs by 50% for biofuels that are imported or made in the U.S. using foreign feedstocks. EPA also proposed biofuel volume requirements for 2026 & 2027 are much higher than most people's expectations for Biomass-based diesel (BBD).   The EPA proposal requires total biofuel blending volumes at 24.02 billion gallons in 2026 and 24.46 billion in 2027; the