CORN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Follow-through selling after yesterday’s difficult close pushed corn futures to new lows, resulting in contract low closes in today’s trade. Technical selling, driven by the likely movement of old crop supplies and farmer selling, dominated the markets. December corn futures closed lower for the third consecutive week, losing 2 ½ cents.
• Producer selling will be a limiting factor in the corn market as basis contracts must be priced by the month’s end. Additionally, producers will be looking to move old crop supplies to make room for this fall’s harvest.
• The corn market will be watching field tours and potential yield results with upcoming crop tours over the next few weeks. The USDA has projected a lofty yield projection, and market participants will be looking for confirmation of this potential. The highly publicized Pro Farmer Tour will start next Monday. Strong results could limit corn prices in the near term.
• Weak cash markets will likely pressure futures as producers price old crop bushels, and early southern harvest results enter the pipeline. Talk in the countryside of weaking basis is starting to grow as those bushels are hitting the market and merchandisers are getting comfortable with fresh supplies.

SOYBEAN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Soybeans ended the day lower with the November contract making new contract lows. Yesterday, futures were briefly higher earlier in the day thanks to a strong NOPA crush report and solid export sales. Unfortunately, trade is much more concerned with the good weather forecast and large crop being anticipated this fall. Soybean meal ended the day lower while soybean oil was higher.
• For the week, September soybeans lost 50 cents to end at 938 ¾ and November soybeans lost 45 ½ cents to end at 957. September soybean meal lost $8.30 to end at $303.40, while September soybean oil lost 2.47 cents to 39.95 cents.
• Since August 9, funds are estimated to have sold 21,500 contracts of soybeans. While funds may have been sellers this week, it is likely that there has been selling on the commercial side as well as producers selling what is left of their old crop in order to make room in their bins for this fall’s harvest.
• According to the EIA report, five renewable diesel plants were opened this past year. This brings the total to 22 plants in production, and the additional five plants should boost production by 44% to 4.33 billion gallons per year. This was supportive to soybean oil today, despite California’s continued pursuit to limit the amount of soybean oil in biofuel production.

WHEAT HIGHLIGHTS:

• All three US wheat classes gained today, aided by a weaker US Dollar Index and support from Matif wheat. The Paris wheat contracts stopped their bleeding and closed higher after four consecutive days of decline. With Matif wheat being oversold and leaving two gaps above the current market level, signs of potential recovery are emerging, which could benefit the US market.
• Minneapolis futures led the wheat complex higher, likely due to heavy rains in parts of North Dakota this week, which slowed the spring wheat harvest. The wet conditions have also raised concerns about the quality of the crop.
• The Ukrainian agriculture ministry reported that their wheat harvest is complete, with 21.7 mmt collected. This aligns closely with the USDA’s estimate of 21.6 mmt and matches last year’s harvest of 21.6 mmt.
• Germany is expected to harvest its smallest grain crop since 2018, totaling 39.1 mmt, according to a German agricultural association. The decline is attributed to lower yields and reduced planted area, with wheat production specifically expected to drop by 13% to 18.76 mmt.

DAIRY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Class III futures retraced slightly today after yesterday’s large gains. The October and November futures contracts lost 36 and 33 cents respectively.
• Spot cheddar had a perfect week, seeing an increase in prices each of the last five days. Spot cheddar on Friday increased slightly by 0.25 cents to close out the week at $2.1775/lb.
• Class IV futures saw some positive action out in 2025 contracts with heavier than normal trading volume. Both the January and February contracts are creeping back towards the contract highs.
• Spot butter improved 3.50 cents on the day to go home at $3.18/lb while powder gained a penny to close out the week at $1.2550/lb.

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Author

Amanda Brill