Weekly grain report

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

1/29/13: For all the volatility in the markets in the last few months things sure have been boring lately. There just doesn’t seem to be a strong catalyst to break this market out in either direction for the time being. Unless exports begin to beat expectations our gains over the last few weeks may begin to erode.

1/31/13: Chicago wheat lost 7 cents today after being up 10 the day before. Yesterday’s rally was sparked by concerns about South American weather and concern over declining soybean yields. That sent soybeans up 27 cents and drug corn and wheat with them. Those weather concerns moderated today which put a stop to the rally. Corn put in a good day on the price charts and shows potential to keep rallying for technical reasons, however exports are still poor and ethanol production continues to decline as plants are idled. If corn can continue to rally over the coming days it will probably pull wheat higher with it, however wheat exports continue to lag the needed pace and ending stocks are likely to be increased on February’s supply and demand report at this rate.

2/1/13: Things started out well today as Chicago wheat was up a dime early in the morning, but everything came off the rails just after 9 a.m. Within a matter of minutes prices dropped 20 cents and then traded at their lows for the rest of the day finishing down 14 cents. There wasn’t any news that sparked it, and it seemed like it was profit taking at the end of the week that got a little out of control. Egypt liked the action and tendered after the close. Whether they buy a bunch of U.S. wheat or not may determine our direction come Monday. Corn and soybeans managed to still put in positive gains for the week although both finished under their 100 day moving averages which takes a bit of the spark out of their technical rallies from early in the week.