I hope all is well on your farm this week. We have replanted the bigger chunks of fields that needed tore up. It was all corn on that front. As far as spotting in, we had both corn and beans…and my dad is using his 4020 and 6-row planter to get those taken care of. We’re also doing hay this week on a couple of fields first…as the weather is unpredictable and we didn’t want to put too much down. My son Beau got his first 15 acres round-baled with some excellent conditions…he’s hoping to get the rest of his put down in the next day or so. Given the chance for rain Wednesday evening after I write this column, much will be dependent on how that turns out. I’ve heard from a few of you who applied for CFAP who already received your money. If you haven’t applied yet and need some help, we’d be glad to direct you…the process is fairly straight-forward. Keep the e-mails coming…we appreciate the updates. matt@agmarket.net
The bean market was solid on Wednesday and did its part to pull along corn, which struggled to find its way back to unchanged on the day. With plenty of talk of Chinese canceling shipments that had previously been purchased, this week has been one where traders have walked on eggshells. There’s no doubt US/Chinese relation have been shaky of late, but most politicians ‘in the know’ seem to think the Phase I trade deal will end up being honored. While we certainly need to see this go through, I feel confident the Chinese need at least some US products…as Brazilian soybeans are unlikely to fulfill all their needs. Outside markets were supportive as July crude oil settled down just 6 cents on Wednesday at $36.75. This was $1.43 off the high and $1.87 off the low. The DOW rallied sharply, settling up 527 points on the day at 26,228. The Dollar continued the freefall we’ve seen of late, settling down .4 at 97.26.
Corn – The corn market fought all day just to get back close to unchanged. July corn settled a quarter of a penny lower at $3.24. This was a half-penny off the high and 2 ¾ cents off the low of the day. The EIA report from the Department of Energy was up again for the fifth week in a row at 78 million bushels of corn usage. This was another 5 million bushels above last week and 25 mb off the marketing-year low. The corn market is dead…as a doornail. I’m not sure if the corn market is being held up by beans…or if beans are being held back by corn. Regardless, I still expect some life in this market if we can get some export sales to hit the books. While spring planting got off to a great start, we’re coming up on the time of year when we can see a weather market unfold. It would be great to see something get the market fired up…but if we do get some upward movement, don’t expect a large-scale rally unless we see major weather issues for the US and/or Brazil’s Safrinha crop and the Dollar continues its slide…which would likely precipitate strong exports moving forward.
Soybeans – Soybeans had a nice little day. July beans settled 7 cents higher at $8.57 ½. The close was a half-penny off the high and 6 ¼ cents off the low of the day. The bean market has been all over the place of late but showed a bit more strength than corn has for sure. With China potentially canceling some shipments, one has to be cautious in getting too bulled up. I still look for a rally in the event these sales we’ve seen this week continue. However, I’m also of the opinion we could see more bean acres on June 30th…if we do, the thoughts of a big bean crop could continue to grow. Therefore, I’m going to be proactive on any decent rally in the month of June. Make sure you have a plan in place one way or the other….as the next several weeks are typically when we see our best opportunity for a rally.
Call us if you want to talk positions or strategy…or simply bend our ear. If you want more information on the markets, be sure to visit my team’s website at https://www.agmarket.net/
Matt Bennett
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matt@bennettconsulting.net – E-mail
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