Weekly grain report

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

2/8/13: The only real surprise in the supply-and-demand report today was that wheat carryovers were reduced instead of getting an increase. Total wheat ending stocks were down 25 million bushels, and soft white stocks were cut by 10 million bushels. Wheat exports were left unchanged despite their tepid pace to date, but feed use was upped by 25 million, which was the reason for the cut to ending stocks. Corn ending stocks were increased by 30 million bushels due to a reduction in projected exports, which was expected. The shocker of the day was that soybean futures closed down 34 cents in spite of ending stocks being lowered by 4 million bushels. Apparently the market was focused on the large projections for South American soybean crops.

2/13/13: Chicago wheat futures managed to put in a positive day after being hammered ever since the end of January. They were only up 3 cents, but it still felt like a win. There’s been a lot of talk about export business at the set prices and we'll get a look at what’s been done in the last week tomorrow morning. The market is expecting a decent number so hopefully we get it. Chicago corn futures closed lower for the eighth day in a row which apparently hasn’t happened since 1980.

As you may have noticed our soft white prices on our website now move with Chicago wheat futures just like the HRW and DNS prices have done for a few years now with their respective futures markets. Portland exporters have gone to the same pricing structure for soft white as they've been using for the hard wheat varieties due to the extreme volatility in the market. Basically they provide a bid that is a set amount above Chicago at any given time meaning that our cash price changes along with changes in the futures market. In the past soft white prices have been loosely linked to Chicago but that isn't the case anymore which forced us to change our bids to be more reflective of the actual market at any given moment. Our website prices are still delayed 10 minutes versus the actual futures so be sure to check with our offices for the most current bid. If you have any questions give me a call and I'll do my best to explain things further. Thank you.

2/19/13: Soybeans were on fire as weekend rains in Argentina failed to live up to expectations. However, a series of storms forecast for this week in the Midwest had both corn and wheat futures down sharply. Egypt issued a tender for wheat after the close of Chicago futures, with results expected by tomorrow morning. Their last purchase consisted of only 2.2 million bushels of U.S. soft red winter wheat, and the trade will be looking for a bigger number than that tomorrow morning before getting too excited.