Grain Marketing Education, News & Strategies

Tidbits Tariffs: The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce later this morning their decision on the legality of Trump’s tariffs. The administration faces the possibility of having to refund nearly $150 billion paid in tariffs to importers if the court declares that the sweeping duties Trump has imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are illegal. Venezuela: The U.S. Senate voted yesterday to advance a resolution that would bar President Donald Trump

Tidbits On Monday at 11 AM Central Time, the USDA will issue its revised estimates for domestic and world Supply and Demand (S&D), the final 2025 U.S. crop production and yield numbers, the Quarterly Stocks (inventory) of commodities as of 1 December 2025, Winter Wheat and Canola seedings, and Cotton Ginnings. The January USDA reports are one of the top three major report days of every year for grain producers and users. The market action of March futures for the day of & the

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 here. 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

Tidbits Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 336,000 mts of old crop soybeans to China. China’s state stockpiler Sinograin purchased 10 U.S. soybean cargoes this week, totaling about 600,000 mts for March–May shipment, the total U.S. crop purchases are now estimated at 8.5–10 million mts, up to 80% of the 12 million mts Secretary Scott Bessent said China pledged to buy by end-February. Venezuela’s Stock Market was up 17% on Monday and 50% yesterday after Nicolás

Tidbits During Friday’s session, CBOT wheat futures put in new contract lows, and then bounced back to close exactly equal to the opening prices. People who know a lot more about technical analysis than we do said this creates a “dragonfly doji” pattern on the daily price chart. Investopedia.com states, “The dragonfly doji is a Japanese candlestick pattern that signals potential market reversal and reflects investor decisions.” It is a minor signal, but yesterday’s market act

Tidbits

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. Dow Jones Industrial Average Index settled on Friday at 48,382, -329 points for the week. Crude oil settled at $57.33, +0.40. Dollar Index settled at 98.43, +0.38. Baltic Dry Index (a shipping freight-cost index) settled at 1,882, +5. Corn March futures settled at $4.37½, -12½¢ for the week. B

Tidbits Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to yield to President Trump’s threat to come to the aid of protesters, as rights groups reported a sharp rise in arrests following days of unrest sparked by soaring inflation. Khamenei said the Islamic Republic "will not yield to the enemy" and that rioters should be "put in their place". Venezuela: After the U.S. military kidnapped Venezuela’s Dictator/President Madura, President Trump stated he will designate

Tidbits Flash sale: Yesterday morning the USDA announced the sale of 132,000 mts of old crop corn to South Korea. Crush numbers: The USDA reported yesterday after the close the November soybean crush was 221 million bushels; the market expected 225.2 million bushels. None-the-less, the November soybeans crush was 11 million bushels (5.2%) above a year ago. The meal inventory at the end of November was 463,019 tons, just 103 tons above a year ago while the oil inventory was

Tidbits CBOT will begin trading at 8:30 AM Central Time and close at normal time, 1:15 PM Central time. USDA is scheduled to release its November oilseed and grain crush numbers after the close. Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, Per Acre Payment Rates for 2025 acres: Barley: $20.51 Canola: $23.57 Chickpeas (Large): $26.46 Chickpeas (Small): $33.36 Corn: $44.36 Cotton: $117.35 Flax: $8.05 Lentils: $23.98 Mustard: $23.21 Oats: $81.75 Peanuts: $55.65 Peas: $19.60 Rice: $132.89 S

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 here. 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

Tidbits The CBOT ag markets will have regular hours today, but no night session tonight and will reopen Friday morning at 8:30 AM Central with a regular closing time. Flash sales: Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 136,000 mts of old crop beans to China and 231,000 mts of old crop beans to unknown. AgrInvest Commodities’ Eduardo Vanin yesterday morning: “China booked a few U.S. (soybean) cargoes yesterday. The total is close to 140 cargoes, ~80% of the 12 milli

Tidbits There was no reasonable explanation for corn, beans and wheat to be smartly lower yesterday. Crude was up more than a dollar early in the day. Corn export inspections for Christmas week were less than previous week, which is to be expected, but were 47% more than a year ago. Soybean export inspections were 54% less and wheat inspections were 11% less than a year ago. Also, the USDA announced the sale of 100,000 mts of old crop soybeans to Egypt. Grain markets will clo

Tidbits Russia-Ukraine: President Trump said he talked to President Putin about two hours yesterday morning before meeting with Ukraine’s President Zelensky yesterday afternoon at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida to discuss a plan to end the 4 year war with Russia. The leaders confirmed that the meeting about a 20-point peace plan was productive, but added that there is more work to be done such as negotiating security guarantees and navigating the future of

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. Dow Jones Industrial Average Index settled on Friday at 48,711, +576 points for the week. Crude oil settled at $56.93, +0.39. Dollar Index settled at 98.05, -0.67. Baltic Dry Index (a shipping freight-cost index) settled at 1,877, -146. Corn March futures settled at $4.50, +6¼¢ for the week. B

Wheat & Put Options On 27 May 2022, September Soft Red Winter Wheat futures settled at $11.66 after trading to $12.85 on 17 May. Here is the daily price chart for September 2022 CBOT wheat June through August 2022: On 27 May 2022, September Soft Red Winter Wheat futures settled at $11.66 after trading to $12.85 on 17 May. Here is the daily price chart for September 2022 CBOT wheat June through August 2022:

Tidbits The commander of the Iranian Army Navy, Admiral Shahram Irani, stated yesterday that the 104th Iranian flotilla is headed towards South America with the objective of escorting freighters. President Donald Trump said the United States had dealt a deadly blow to ISIS terrorists in northwestern Nigeria. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed a Bloomberg report about Russia adjusting its Ukraine peace plan as fake news saying Bloomberg has no reli

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 here. 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

Tidbits The U.S. GDP for the third quarter 2025 was released a month late yesterday, but it was good news as the economy expanded 4.3% from a year ago; the market expected an expansion of 3.3%. There were about a dozen other less important economic indicators for the U.S. economy that were a mixed bag of good and not so good news. A year ago, “everybody” predicted the U.S. would be in a deep recession by now because of Trump’s tariffs. Here are the Quarterly GDP numbers since

Tidbits Flash sale: Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 330,000 mts of old crop soybeans and 66,000 mts of new crop soybeans to China. The ag markets will close at 12:05 PM Central tomorrow and reopen at 8:30 AM Central the day after Christmas. January options expire on Friday. Long January futures and basis contracts need to be liquidated or rolled by the close of business Tuesday, 30 December. CBOT prices were higher yesterday and the basis for corn and beans