Weekly grain report

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

10/11/12: There were no Earth-shattering revelations on the most recent USDA supply-and-demand report, however it was considered at least favorable to corn, soybeans and wheat. Corn supplies were reduced a little more than expected and in line with the drop from the stocks report at the end of September. Soybeans didin’t get as big a bump to ending stocks as traders feared they might, due to corresponding increases in projected demand. Wheat supplies were cut, although not by as much as expected, the exception being a 78-million-bushel cut to projected HRW ending stocks. Since the row crops had been hammered so hard leading into the report, they rebounded by a greater degree than did wheat, but it was still a nice up day overall for prices. This report does not change the landscape as far as what was known prior to it, so we may remain stuck in our familiar range for wheat prices for the foreseeable future.

10/15/12: The grain markets continued their slump lower, as the negative momentum from Friday carried over into this week. At this point it seems like it’s non-commercial speculative and investment money souring on the grain markets rather than any fundamental reason pushing prices lower. Soybeans traded into a gap on the November futures’ price chart that was left back in June but failed to fill it. Soybeans were down 30 cents on the day and seem to be dragging wheat and corn prices down with them. This is odd when you consider that the soybean market may be the strongest of the three fundamentally as there were 57 million bushels of beans shipped out for export last week. Wheat exports continue to be terrible at only 7 million bushels last week, 1 million being white wheat.