MARKET COMMENTARY

Opening Calls:

Corn steady to 1 higher

Beans steady to 1 lower

Overall crop condition scores were unchanged for corn, still reflecting 61% good to excellent. However, a few major states ratings did decline: Iowa was down 1% to 59%; Illinois was down 4% to 52%; Minnesota was off 1% as well. Hard to imagine that other states made up enough ground to cover those declines. We’ll see if the traders respond positively to that information. Another piece of interesting information comes from China, where 5,000 metric tons of government owned stocks were sold, but this is about 2% of the 232,000 tons offered. Could be further evidence of very poor quality reserves. 

For soybeans, South America weather concerns are still in the news, but not doing much to change prices. Brazil remains too dry in many places, while Argentina remains too wet in places. Soybean crop conditions did decline slightly from 60% to 59% in the good to excellent category. USDA is also reporting about 4% of the total crop is harvested vs. 5% on average this time of year. Once we get through these rain events, and with the heat that is in the forecast, we should see several parts of the state of Iowa going pretty hard by the end of the week. 

As you gear up for harvest, please keep safety in mind.