Weekly grain report

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

1/4/11: South American forecasts looked a little wetter at the start of the day and the grain markets sold off accordingly. Later in the day things started looking a little drier and the corn and bean markets recovered most of their losses with Chicago wheat finishing down 7 cents. White wheat was down seven on the day as well. Still not much else to report.

1/6/11: Parts of Argentina will be getting some rain in the next few days but the weather will return to hot and dry for awhile after that at least, how much rain actually falls and where will be the big questions coming out of this weekend. The market's focus is shifting to the upcoming USDA report bonanza on Thursday. Informa came out with their guesses today and lowered their corn production number by a couple hundred million bushels from their last one, however it's still slightly higher than the USDA's most current estimate.

1/9/11: Instead of focusing on the rain that’s supposed to fall over the next two days in Argentina, the market chose to look at the fact that the hot dry weather will return to the area immediately after. Chicago wheat prices climbed 17 cents on the day and soft white prices tacked on 15. Corn futures were also up 8 cents on the day but closed about a dime off their highs. Supposedly, some investment money needs to sell some corn positions and buy wheat to rebalance their portfolios and that seemed to play out in the markets today. There is also a growing expectation that corn supplies will see a cut on Thursday’s report. That makes it all the more critical that there actually is a cut in store for us, or the market will be greatly disappointed.