Both locations will be closed on Monday, January 18th in observation of Martin Luther King Day. We will return to normal business hours Tuesday, January 19th. 

January 15th, 2021 

CORN

It proved to be a much quieter trading session for corn today after a very active week. The USDA reports set the tone this week with March corn gaining 35 ¼ cents on the week. The December corn was up 19 ½ cents. The USDA announced a sale of 110,000 tons of corn to Mexico during this marketing year. Rumors that China is looking for U.S. corn for spring delivery continues to offer support under the market as well. With no trade on Monday, a slower volume session was noted today. The weather in South America leans a little negative to the market with rains slated to fall in Argentina this weekend. It will be dry there next week with rain chances increasing again towards the end of the month. Brazil conditions looking generally favorable with the exception of a couple of dry spots in the southern parts of the country. Corn got pulled off its early lows by a sharply higher wheat market. Chicago wheat made new contract highs this morning on talk that Russia is planning to raise their wheat export tax starting March 1st. This creates hope that more wheat business gets shifted to the U.S. this spring. The commitment of traders’ report will be out this afternoon. Trade estimates are showing the corn fund long near 428,000 contracts, which would be within just a few contracts of the record. Tonight’s data will be through this past Tuesday and should reflect some active fund buying from report day.

SOYBEANS

Soybeans closed with double digit losses in the nearby months while the new crop months posted small gains. For the week, March beans gained 42 cents, while November was up 36 cents. The USDA announced a sale of 318,000 tons of beans to unknown destinations for the 21/22 marketing year. This is assumed to be China. Rumors have persisted most of the week that China remains interested in both old and new crop beans out of the U.S. NOPA crush today for December came in at 183.159 Mln. bu., which was a couple of million bushels shy of trader expectations. The total was still the highest December on record and the 2 nd highest total of any month (185.245 in October of 2020). Soyoil stocks came in at 1.699 Bln. pounds, the highest total in 6 months. Chicago bean oil futures closed sharply lower today, following another sharply lower close in Malaysian palm oil futures. Rain is expected to fall in Argentina over the next couple of days before a dry trend next week. Brazil crop conditions have stabilized in the recent weeks with active harvest expected next month. Equities and crude were lower today. The dollar was higher.