BASIC & RECENT MARKET INFO

Tidbits Every month the USDA issues a Cold Storage Report . They are usually not significant for grains, but Wednesday’s report showed all but one of the food categories in the nation’s commercial freezers are substantially less than a year ago: red meat down 4%; beef down 1%; pork down 7% including bellies down 26% (just before BLT season), cheese down 2%, and butter down 5%. Only American cheese inventory was up, 5% more than a year ago. “American cheese” is a distinct prod

Highlights The White House  issued this press release shortly after 1:15 PM EDT Sunday: Reuters News Service, May 11, 2025:17 PM EDT: The U.S. and China ended high-stakes trade talks on a positive note on Sunday, with U.S. officials touting a "deal" to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, while Chinese officials said the sides had reached "important consensus" and agreed to launch another new economic dialogue forum.   Neither side released details after they wrapped up two days of

Tidbits Corn was hit hard yesterday by the expected increase in 2025 acres, improved weather in South America, and first notice day for deliveries on March futures, all of which is old news. Improved weather for soybean harvest means more safrinha corn will get planted and Argentina’s dry areas will get a drink, but that does not change the fact the world is short of corn. After Friday’s price decline, we were surprised to see corn so weak yesterday. Soybeans traded to the bo

Highlights It is very important to understand Friday’s price gains  for corn and beans were based upon production cuts, not demand increases. While there will be increases in demand in the coming months, the production cuts for 2024 U.S. crops are behind us and there will be no more production adjustments until possibly some minor adjustment in September, after the marketing year is over.    Brazilian grain trader, Eduardo Vanin, Friday evening reported exporters were booking

Tidbits The farm bill will provide nearly $31 billion in disaster and economic aid  to farmers, but it looks like it will be late March before payments are made. You can read DTN’s summary of the Farm Bill's financial aid at this link .   The Soybean Seasonal Trend the next 30 days is very predictable. We covered this two weeks ago and here it is again. The past 6 years, March soybeans have lost an average of 88½¢ as the market priced-in Brazil’s soybean crop being made in th

Highlights Tomorrow at 10 AM Mountain Time the USDA will issue its August S&D. It will include yield adjustments for 2024 corn and beans. If you looked at the estimates we sent you on Thursday, August 8th, corn production is expected to be just 12 million bushels (0.008%) more than the USDA’s July production number.   Did you notice the expected corn carryover tomorrow is expected to be 1 million bushels smaller than USDA’s July S&D for both the old and new crop corn and the

Highlights China returns to work today after their 15-day Lunar New Year Celebration. Reuters News Service reports there are signs that the China gloom and doom may be lifting, even if only temporarily. Equities have rebounded this year from five-year lows, and official figures on Sunday showed that tourism revenues in the Lunar New Year holidays were 47.3% more than last year and 7.7% more than pre-COVID levels of 2019.   The data will offer relief to financial policy makers

Highlights Dr. Michael Cordonnier, the guru of South American crop production, wrote on Friday: "Farmers in Mato Grosso have a difficult decision to make concerning their 2023/24 safrinha corn. Soybean planting in many areas of the state has been delayed due to hot and dry conditions and some of the early planted soybeans will need to be replanted. These delays will result in a delay in planting the safrinha corn in January and February. The ideal planting window for safrin