Weekly grain report

Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse.

4/24/12: Grain futures started well but couldn’t hold their gains in wheat and corn which both closed in the red in Chicago. Soybeans rallied and traded at the highest levels since 2008 on further production cuts in Argentina. Wheat and corn may have gotten caught in the downdraft coming from the cattle market, as futures in that market were limit down on news of a case of mad cow in California. The affected cow was a dairy cow and did not enter the food chain, so perhaps things will recover a bit tomorrow. There was confirmation of 18 million bushels of old-crop corn sold to an unknown destination, which is likely confirmation of Chinese rumors from last week.

4/25/12: The grain markets rallied strongly overnight, as soybeans traded over 30 cents higher with corn and wheat each up around a dime. That positive momentum vanished shortly after the open of the day session of trade, as corn and wheat futures quickly gave back gains and ended the day down 7 cents in corn and 8 cents in Chicago wheat, in spite of the fact that additional old and new crop corn sales were announced to both China and unknown destinations. Japan is in tonight for 780,000 bushels of western white.

4/26/12: It looked like trade was going to be a repeat of Wednesday as grain markets rallied overnight, only to trade lower for most of the day. However corn, soybeans and wheat rallied strongly into the close, with Minneapolis wheat the only exception. Export sales were decent with 14 million bushels of old-crop wheat and 13 million bushels of new crop. However. old-crop white wheat saw a 1.4-million-bushel negative due to cancellations, while new-crop sales came in at 1.5 million bushels. May corn futures gained 6.5 cents on the July and are now priced 16.5 cents higher indicating solid demand and concern about inventories lasting through the summer.

4/27/12: Friday’s grain trade was exciting, as 1.56 million metric tons of corn were sold to China and unknown destinations (China) last night. Most of it was new crop, 1.44 million metric tons, but it was still the biggest one-day corn sale since 1991. Soybeans cracked the $15 level but closed just under that, and wheat was just along for the ride. White wheat was up a dime. After the close of the futures trade Informa announced that they’d cut Argentina’s projected soybean production to 40 MMT from 45 MMT earlier. Monday’s markets will be very interesting.

4/30/12: Grain futures were giving back a portion of Friday’s gains to start the day, however corn, soybeans and wheat rallied into the close and finished near the day’s highs. Export shipments for soft white were extremely good last week with 7.5 million bushels moving out. Corn planting progress was pegged at 53% versus 27% as the normal for this time of year. That may add some weakness to the market in the morning. However, if the export sales pace remains strong, there won’t be much of an argument against prices continuing to rise.