BASIC & RECENT MARKET INFO

Tidbits Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 554,400 mts  of new crop (2025 corn) and 75,600 mts of 2026 corn  to Mexico . Somebody in Mexico thinks corn is really cheap to be buying that much for future delivery. Mexico’s wheat imports for the 2025/26 season are projected to rise to 6.4 million mts due to its lowest harvest in 30 years. Current season import estimates are at 5.2 million mts. The U.S. remains the primary supplier with a share of about 73%, follow

Tidbits Pro Farmer reports: Some yield concerns  are cropping up in Brazil , with some later-planted safrinha corn facing an increased stress in drier biased areas, most notably in center-west areas.   For anyone watching our daily rain day charts that is no surprise. The first three locations are Brazil’s safrinha corn area and the dry season clearly started the first week in May. The dry season usually means no rain. Imagine what a corn field looks like if planted in sandy

Tidbits From 19 February to 28 April, July corn lost 10¢ versus December corn. From 28 April to 13 May, the spread of July corn to December lost another 31½ cents! Yesterday, July corn gained 3½¢ on December corn, which is a huge change in direction.   From harvest until deep into the spring, when old crop prices lose on new crop prices, that is a bearish indicator, even in an up market. The opposite is also true. We should have shown more respect for what that spread was tel

Tidbits The U.S. crude oil  inventory increased by 4.29 million barrels in the reporting week ending 9 May, a sharp reversal from the prior week's 4.49 million-barrel draw, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The markets expected a 2.4 million-barrel decline. None-the-less, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were up $1.72 a barrel yesterday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday morning reported the annual inflation  rate at the retail level decline

Highlights OPEC+  members were scheduled to meet Monday, but the members decided to meet yesterday to discuss the pace of recovering the voluntary production cuts of the past two years, according to Kpler’s Amena Bakr. The virtual meeting’s agenda focused on “consensus building around maintaining the 411,000 barrels per day increased production for June.”   After yesterday’s meeting, OPEC+ announced it would increase crude oil output by 411,000 barrels per day starting June 1

Tidbits China ’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will meet with Brazilian authorities in Brazil  this week to discuss food and nutritional security, sustainable agricultural production and climate change, electronic certification of agricultural products and agricultural trade, and logistics infrastructure, according to Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Fávaro.   Quotes of Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins :   11 April: "Just finished a p

Tidbits Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 240,000 mts of old crop corn to Spain. In February, U.S. agricultural trade deficit showed slight improvement, with exports decreasing to $13.59 billion (a drop of $830 million from January) and imports falling more sharply to $17.86 billion (down $2.81 billion). This reduction narrowed the monthly trade deficit to $4.27 billion, an improvement from January's record deficit of $6.25 billion. USDA projects 2025 financia

Tidbits Today is when President Trump said his tariffs on various imported products from multiple countries will be announced. The market has probably overestimated the impact of these tariffs.     Yesterday, the USDA reported total crush for February after the CBOT closed. The corn crush was 465 million bushels, down 6% from a year ago; corn crushed for ethanol was 421 million bushels, down 5%. The soybean crush was 189 million bushels, 2% less than a year ago. The canola cr

Tidbits Corn was sharply lower yesterday because of the weekly ethanol report (see below) and the fear of Monday’s USDA acreage and inventory report as well as continued tariff rhetoric. New orders for durable goods in the U.S.  unexpectedly increased $2.7 billion or up 0.9% in February versus January following an upwardly revised 3.3% jump in January. The market expected February durable goods to be down 1%. Later this morning, we will get the U.S. GDP update. The market exp

Tidbits Federal Reserve  Chairman Jerome Powell said yesterday afternoon interest rates will not be changed this month, but he weighed in on the state of the US economy. His outlook was not reassuring, which was not a surprise knowing he hates Trump. Powell said Trump’s policies are one reason why inflation is reigniting. Powell said the Fed sharply reduced its 2025 growth projection for the U.S. economy and noted that uncertainty around the slowing economy is increasing. Pow

Highlights Putin and Trump talked for more than 2 hours yesterday. Putin told Trump that a complete cessation of military aid to Kyiv is the key condition for resolving the conflict in Ukraine, according to TASS, the Russian news service. Putin also noted the serious risks associated with the non-agreement of Kiev, which has already repeatedly sabotaged and violated the agreements reached.   Putin has agreed to an initial "energy and infrastructure" ceasefire, to be followed

Tidbits President Trump and President Putin are scheduled to have a phone conversation this morning regarding the negotiations of a ceasefire and possibly the end to the Ukraine/Russia  war. The discussion will be centered on the allocation of assets, primarily of land and power plants that must be settled before a lasting peace can be maintained. Mark Carney was sworn in as the first new Canadian prime minister  in nine years on Friday. He visited the UK and France as his fi

Tidbits Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale  of 218,604 mts of old crop corn to unknown and 20,000 mts of old crop soybean oil to unknown.   Karen Braun , Global Ag Analyst and Reporter for Reuters News Service reported the following on Thursday: "According to its own statistics agency, CONAB, Brazil’s corn supplies, as of a few weeks ago, hit the lowest level in at least 25 years.   But the USDA does not expect a scenario like that to unfold until early next year.

Highlights Corn deliveries on March futures have been zero since 7 March, so a search for a reason for yesterday’s 14¢ loss on May corn by late morning found no fundamental reason other than the price of eggs had fallen from $8.17 earlier this month to $5.51 yesterday according to the USDA, which reported the egg inventory increased 5.2% the past week. A bit later, we learned ethanol production was down 31,000 barrels per day from last week, but still above 1.06 million barre

Highlights On Saturday, China announced tariffs on over $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products, retaliating against Canadian tariffs introduced in October. The tariffs are scheduled to take effect on 20 March and they match the 100% and 25% import duties Canada slapped on China-made electric vehicles, steel, and aluminum products. Canola was excluded from a China tariff, which was one of Canada's top exports to the world's top agricultural importer pri

Highlights First thing this morning the USDA will release its projections for 2025  crops and that includes the S&D with acres planted, yields, and price projections. The average estimate for tomorrow’s acreage numbers are 93.6 million for corn, 84.4 million for soybeans, and 46.7 million for wheat. Drew Learner, Senior Agricultural Meteorologist at World Weather expects drier than normal weather for Brazil’s safrinha corn:   “While monsoon precipitation is expected to prevai

Highlights President Putin announced yesterday the restoration of U.S. and Russia diplomatic ties  as the peace talks accelerate. Reuters News service confirmed the agreement was reached Tuesday, the first day of the negotiations in Saudi Arabia on ending the war. The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange lowered their Argentine corn  production estimate by 1 million mts to 46 million (USDA 50). Corn condition rating this week is down to 16% in good/excellent and up to 49% poor/very p

Tidbits Dr. Michael Cordonnier raised his Brazilian soybean crop estimate  one million mts to 171 million due to  “surprising harvest progress in central Brazil last week and the anticipation of another good harvest week this week.”   Alê Delara is an agronomist and farmer in the Brazilian state of Paraná in Southern Brazil. Yesterday he said, “Here come the beans! We will probably have the highest productivity here on the farm since we started with soybeans.”   Kory Melby is

Highlights The USDA made no changes on the domestic corn and soybean S&D  other than increasing the average price expected to be paid to...

Highlights The weather pattern Mato Grosso and Goias through Wednesday is expected to allow a sharp advance in the harvest pace. Weather forecasts indicate alternating rain and sun, with higher temperatures. Elevators in Mato Grosso reported a three to fourfold increase in soybean deliveries the past two days. Crushers report very low protein content (below 33%), but high oil content.   In Brazil’s leading corn and bean producing state, Mato Grosso (MT), the prices in July fo