CORN HIGHLIGHTS:

• The corn market remained resilient to begin the week, with futures finishing modestly higher despite heavy selling pressure in soybeans and crude oil. December corn gained ½ cent to 448 ¼, while March added 1 cent to 462.
• USDA reported a flash export sale of corn on Monday morning. Mexico purchased 1.729 MMT (68.7 mb) of corn, which was broken down over the next two marketing years. A total of 1.135 MMT (44.7 mb) of corn was sold for 2026-27, and 594,360 MT (23.4 mb) of corn was sold for 2027-28.
• Weekly corn export inspections totaled 885,000MT (34.8 mb) for the week ending October 29. This was within the expectations of the market. Current total export inspections have reached 420 mb, which is down 13% from last year, with the USDA expecting a 4% year-over-year drop. This pace is also behind the pace needed to reach the USDA target for the marketing year.
• Managed Funds have aggressively exited their long position in the corn market. On last week’s CFTC Commitment of Traders report, as of October 27, funds held a net long position of 55,943 contracts, down 90,314 from last week. The funds net long peaked at 431,062 net long contracts on the week of September 1.
• Corn futures held resilient on Monday with strong selling in the Crude Oil markets, trading as much as 7-8% lower on talk of Peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran before midterm elections.

SOYBEAN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Soybeans ended the day lower as a result of sharply lower crude oil along with losses in both soy products. While there was no clear news for the nearly 8-dollar loss in crude oil, outlets are reporting that some Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar are involved in negotiations with Iran in order to get the Strait of Hormuz open and operating at pre-war levels.
• November soybeans lost 17-1/2 cents to $12.04-3/4, and though the move was largely due to lower crude oil, support for the contract may be as low as the 200-day moving average at $11.89. March soybeans lost $17-1/4 cents to $12.26-1/2, December soybean meal lost $5.00 to $319.60, and December soybean oil lost 0.82 cents to 65.08 cents. December crude oil is currently down $7.70 a barrel to $96.44.
• While crude oil moved lower due to potential peace talks in the Middle East, President Trump may be preparing to escalate attacks on Iran. American Gulf allies are reportedly “steeling themselves for a heavy U.S. bombardment of Iran” that they expect, and Trump has stated may happen after the midterm election. Israel has said that it would join the attack against Iran. This, in addition to potential volatility from the U.S. elections, will likely keep oil prices volatile, which could translate over to soybeans.
• Friday’s CFTC report saw funds as sellers of soybeans as of October 27. They sold 21,536 contracts of soybeans, which reduced their net long position to 185,400 contracts, they sold 13,587 contracts of soybean oil leaving them long 56,271 contracts and sold 34,834 contracts of soybean meal reducing their net long position to 169,859 contracts.

WHEAT HIGHLIGHTS:

• All three wheat futures classes closed in the green today. U.S. wheat has recently become significantly technically oversold – this is helping to build price support at these lower levels. Additionally, the U.S. Dollar Index today hit its lowest point in just over a month, which was supportive for wheat. In the December contract, Chicago gained 3 cents to 606-1/2, Kansas City rallied 1-3/4 cents to 646, and MIAX climbed 2 cents to 625-3/4.
• Weekly wheat export inspections came in at only 2.8 mb. This brings total 26/27 inspections to 277 mb, down 36% from last year. Inspections are currently running well under the USDA’s estimated pace; total exports in 26/27 are anticipated to reach 750 mb, down 17% from the year prior.
• According to Friday’s Commitments of Traders report from the CFTC, managed funds sold about 40,000 wheat contracts for the week (combined among the three classes). This brought their net short position in wheat to about 80,500 contracts, which is the largest it has been in eight months.
• IKAR has stated that the Russian and Baltic Sea export prices for wheat finished last week at $260/mt, which was down $4 from the week prior.
• The European Commission reduced their estimate of EU 26/27 soft wheat production by 0.5 mmt, to 123.7 mmt. Ending stocks were also reduced by 0.8 mmt to 10.6 mmt. Nevertheless, they left their 26/27 soft wheat export forecast unchanged at 29.0 mmt.

DAIRY HIGHLIGHTS:

• November through February Class III futures settled with double-digit gains today. November is back up to just under $18.00.
• Spot cheese was slightly higher after a tough cheddar block trade on Friday. Whey was unchanged.
• Class IV futures were green today as well with the second month contract at $21.02.
• The spot trade was split for Class IV with butter down 2.50 cents to start the week and a 1.25 cent gain for powder.

 Total Farm Marketing and TFM refer to Stewart-Peterson Group Inc., Stewart-Peterson Inc., and SP Risk Services LLC. Stewart-Peterson Group Inc. is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as an introducing broker and is a member of the National Futures Association. Stewart-Peterson Inc. is a publishing company. SP Risk Services LLC is an insurance agency. A customer may have relationships with all three companies. TFM Market Updates is a service of Stewart-Peterson Inc. Futures and options trading involve significant risk of loss and may not be suitable for everyone. Therefore, carefully consider whether such trading is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

Author

Amanda Brill