Grain Marketing Education, News & Strategies

Tidbits Wheat was higher in Europe on Monday. Saudi Arabia cancelled its 550,000 mts wheat tender because prices were too high. Russian Exports: Latvia's government plans to impose a ​300% tariff on grain arriving from ‌Russia and Belarus, the Baltic country's Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said on Monday. A ban or ‌high ⁠tariffs could cut off a key alternative at a time when Black Sea and Azov Sea routes have been ​paralysed by ​Ukrainian ⁠drone strikes. Andrey Sizov from So

Tidbits After meeting with President Putin Saturday, American negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials in Kyiv. Zelenskiy, who believes Washington will be key to ⁠any peace deal, has said a window of opportunity to make peace exists before the U.S. begins focusing on its next presidential election. "Security guarantees are needed. A dignified post-war peace is needed. Our proposals have been drawn u

Tidbits The market action yesterday was very disappointing, especially in wheat and corn, after the beating those two commodities took the previous two days. But, as our client Jeff pointed out, yesterday’s lows were above Thursday’s lows in the corn, beans, and both winter wheats. That is technically significant. Wheat sits 10¢ above the support level from the July peak. The 14 day Relative Strength Index as of the close yesterday: Dec Corn: 70.06, the high for the week was

Tidbits Turkey is discussing a plan to create a new grain corridor in the Black Sea. According to local media, Turkey has intensified diplomatic contacts with Russia and Ukraine. The Chamber of Maritime Commerce of Turkey confirmed that it held meetings at the Ministry of Transport, where they spoke of "intense discussions" regarding a new grain deal. However, no specific deadlines have been mentioned. We do not see any way this grain corridor will be created any time soon, b

Tidbits Flash Sales: The USDA reported yesterday sales of 132,000 mts of new crop soybeans to unknown. Iran & China: U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” yesterday, saying “If (countries) facilitate transactions and are part of the ecosystem that turns Iranian oil into money, into repression, they will be targeted.” This includes any country that participates in Iran’s aviation, shipping, and technology sectors. Bessent said that China will n

Tidbits Photos From East Central South Dakota: 16X30 29,000 population on the field where these ears came from. Fertilizer: Mosaic Company is an American chemical company based in Tampa, Florida, which mines phosphate, potash, and collects urea through various international distribution networks and Mosaic Fertilizantes. It is the largest USA producer of potash and phosphate fertilizers. Drew Crawford is an American financial whiz living in Brazil who established a busi

Tidbits The National Weather Service (NWS) forecast Sunday evening predicted above normal rainfall and above normal temperatures for the next two weeks in the Corn Belt. This is August, the month that makes or breaks soybean yields. The USDA predicted an average yield of 53 bushels on its July S&D, the same as a year ago, but 2.25 bushels more than 2024 and 2.4 bushels more than 2023. Matt Makens is an atmospheric scientist. He says the current Super El Niño is unlike any

Tidbits Flash Sales: Yesterday, the USDA announced the sale of 252,000 mts of new crop soybeans to unknown. China's Soybean Auctions: China's Sinograin auctioned 504,000 metric tons (18.5 million bushels) of imported soybeans on Friday. They sold roughly half of the offered volume in its largest reserve auction since January. Sold beans moved into commercial channels, and Sinograin has scheduled another auction of 501,158 metric tons for Wednesday, involving soybeans produced

Tidbits Flash sales: Yesterday morning, USDA announced the sale of: 340,000 mts of new crop soybeans to China 256,634 mts of new crop soybeans to Mexico 110,000 mts of new crop soybeans to unknown The International Grains Council (IGC), in its latest Grain Market Report, sees global grains crop dropping by 2.7% (69 million mts) from last year’s record of 2.49 billion mts. Much of the fall is reflected in smaller anticipated corn and wheat crops, but with oats, sorghum and rye

Tidbits The NOPA soybean crush in June was 214.34 million bushels of soybeans, up 2.7% from May and up 15.7% from a year ago. It exceeded trade expectations as the daily pace of processing rebounded from an eight-month low posted in May to the strongest level in three months. You can learn about the NOPA via the link: https://www.wrightonthemarket.com/post/about-the-nopa The USDA is now accepting applications for its Agribusiness Trade Mission to Vietnam on November 9-12. Vie

Tidbits The USDA will issue its February S&D today at 11 AM central time. We do not expect any surprises, but nothing in this business is 100%. Flash sale: Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 264,000 mts of old crop soybeans to China. Farmers in Brazil have harvested 16.55% of the area planted with soy for the 2025/26 season, above the 9.84% harvested this time last year, consultancy firm Patria AgroNegocios said on Friday. Brazil 2025/26 soy harvest sales at 33

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

Tidbits President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered "closed in its entirety." He gave no further details as the U.S. ramps up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday that a delegation headed by security council secretary Rustem Umerov was on its way to the U.S. to continue talks on an agreement to end the war with Russia. Umerov has been put i

Tidbits Ukraine’s President Zelensky's powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who has headed Ukraine's peace negotiation team, quit yesterday, hours after anti-corruption agents raided and searched his home. A wide-spread probe into high-level corruption has sparked public outrage and thrust its leadership into crisis as Trump increases the pressure on Zelensky to reach a settlement. Crude oil: Two Russian shadow fleet tankers were struck, and likely destroyed, north of th

Tidbits China bought at least ten more shiploads of U.S. soybeans (~650,000 mts) on Tuesday according to multiple sources within the grain export trade. Eduardo Vanin of AgrInvest Commodities: China continues buying soybeans from the U.S. Purchases have reached 67 cargoes, ~35% of the program. These purchases make no economic sense — they are political purchases. The losses on these soybeans for crush are enormous, which leads the market to think: regardless of price, the sta

Tidbits Ukraine: On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio led the talks in Geneva with a high-level Ukrainian delegation after Ukraine and its European allies rejected the U.S. peace plan because of the major concessions to Russia. Rubio said significant progress was made on crafting a plan to end the war in Ukraine during the talks, but no agreement was reached on how to guarantee Kyiv's security amid concerns about the threat posed by Russia. European officials jo

Tidbits Russia-Ukraine: Sharply lower crude oil yesterday was primarily due to the prospect of the war between Russia and Ukraine ending next week. President Trump is telling Ukraine’s President Zelensky to sign a new peace proposal by Thanksgiving or risk losing U.S. support. U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll delivered the message to Zelensky on Thursday in the form of a 28-point plan drafted by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. The p

Tidbits Russia-Ukraine: On the surface, Trump’s meeting with President Putin was a total failure. Trump had said he wanted a cease fire in Russia’s war with Ukraine and a framework for a lasting peace. The culture of Eastern Europe and a lack of a Ukrainian representative made Trump’s goals highly unlikely. The anti-Trumper news media is jumping all over this failure. However, Trump and Putin showed friendliness and mutual respect at their press conference. Trump was asked to

Tidbits Inflation: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the July producer price index (PPI) increased 0.9% from June, the largest one month advance since pandemic consumer inflation peaked in June 2022. The market was expecting a 0.2% increase. Many economists and politicians say the increased pace of inflation at the wholesale level of the economy reflects the cost of Trump's tariffs. In any case, wholesale inflation will soon find its way into the retail market as w

Tidbits Corn: Karen Braun was correct when she reported yesterday that U.S. corn stocks-to-use ratio at 13.3%, is the lowest for an August USDA projection in three years despite a yield 9.8 bushels above the previous record on the largest corn acreage since 1936. That is quite a testament to the magnitude of the corn demand. Ukraine: Reuters reported last evening that European leaders and Ukraine's President Zelenskiy spoke with Trump in a last-ditch call hosted by Germa