CORN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Buyers came back into the corn market as corn futures finished with moderately strong gains. Fund short covering and technical buying pushed the December corn market to its highest intraday levels since July 3 before settling into the close. December con gained 6 ¼ cents to 429 ½, and March added 6 cents to 447.
• The December corn contract is looking to fill the trading gap on the December chart going back to July 3. The top of the gap is 432 ¾ cents. This area is acting as a strong point of resistance. Closing this trading gap could allow prices to push higher to challenge the 440 level.
• Corn harvest has begun in the US. Weekly crop progress reports stated that corn harvest was 7% complete as of September 14. This is 2% behind the five-year average. The corn market will be monitoring yield results as the eastern and southern corn belt saw some of the driest conditions in over 100 years in August, which likely limited the final yield on the corn crop.
• Late Tuesday, the EPA released a proposal addressing the reallocation of biofuel blending obligations that were recently waived for small oil refineries. The EPA will open a comment period on two plans for reallocating 100% or 50% of the biofuel blending responsibilities waived under the small refinery exemption program.
• Extended forecast into the end of September is expected to be above normal for most areas of the corn belt, with precipitation to be normal to below normal. This forecast should help promote harvest of the corn crop.

SOYBEAN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Soybeans ended the day significantly higher taking back all of yesterday’s losses, posting the highest close since the end of last month. November soybeans gained 7 cents to $10.49-3/4 while March gained 7-3/4 cents to $10.84-1/4. October soybean meal gained $0.60 to $285.80 and October bean oil gained 0.93 cents to 52.69 cents.
• Support today came from hope that this Friday when President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi, agricultural exports will be included in the deal for TikTok. While China has not purchased US soybeans since January 22, 2025, they may step in thinking that this year’s crop will be small to secure a cheaper price.
• Yesterday’s Crop Progress report saw soybean crop conditions fall by one point to 63% good to excellent which compared to 64% a year ago. 41% of the crop has dropped leaves which is above the 5-year average of 40% and 5% is harvested compared the to 5-year average of 3% at this time.
• New crop soybean sales to other countries apart from China have been the best since 2018-2019, but this has not been enough to offset the lack of Chinese business. Brazilian beans are the most expensive in the world right now, but the additional 23% tariff that China has placed on US beans has made ours the most expensive.

WHEAT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Wheat closed with a gain of 9 cents for December Chicago futures. Meanwhile, Dec Kansas City was up 9-1/2 at 523-1/2, and MIAX gained 4-3/4 cents to 576-1/2. Support came from a drop in the US Dollar Index to the lowest level since the start of July. Additionally, purchases in the past week by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Indonesia all added some bullish sentiment.
• Wheat futures traded higher for the fourth consecutive session. This is the longest winning streak in the December Chicago wheat contract going back to November 15, 2024.
• According to yesterday’s crop progress report, the US winter wheat crop is now 11% planted, which falls just short of last year and the five-year average, both at 13%. Additionally, the spring wheat crop is 94% harvested, compared to 91% last year and 92% on average.
• The French soft wheat crop is now estimated at 33.3 mmt, an increase of 0.2 mmt from the August forecast. This represents a 30% year over year increase – last year’s production was historically low. The new estimate is also 4.7% above the five-year average.
• Asian millers have reportedly purchased more US wheat due to competitive prices and delays in Black Sea shipping. Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have all secured US wheat deals with soft wheat sold at $270 per ton and hard red sold at $275 per ton. Following this, the USDA has raised its forecast for US wheat exports for the 25/26 marketing year.

DAIRY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Class III milk futures were mixed on the day. The October contract was the largest gainer of remaining 2025 contracts, improving 17 cents to $16.65/lb.
• Spot cheese improved slightly by 0.50 cents to $1.62/lb. Whey was unchanged from the day prior at $0.6025/lb.
• Class IV milk futures were relatively quiet with just the September and October contract seeing slight losses for remaining 2025 contracts.
• Spot butter continues to weaken, dropping 5 cents to $1.77/lb. Powder lost 2 pennies to close at $1.14/lb.
• Today’s Global Dairy Trade auction event was down 0.80% to 1,199 points which is the lowest the trade weighted index has been since October 2024.

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Author

John Heinberg