Mark's Market Talk for August 12, 2024

We just finished another week of lower prices for corn and beans. September corn closed down 10 cents while December was down 8. November beans dropped 25 cents as they set new lows. The funds continue to be extremely short the board and are still defending their positions. Basis levels for both grains softened this week as end users are watching their inventories and counting the days to harvest. They are anticipating farmers doing their annual post state fair bin cleaning that brings lots of easy to buy grain to town. However, it appears there is still a fair amount of unpriced grain sitting in farmers’ hands. Their window of opportunity is narrowing by the day as we get closer to harvest. There is a chance that the August USDA report that will be released on Monday the 12^th could have some positive news. You would think all the bad news has been factored in already and if for some reason they lowered the production we might catch a rally. There is a large confusion on how many prevent plant acres there was this spring and the FSA data will be used in this report which might add some clarity. Or it may muddy the waters some more and they could easily raise overall production. Anymore every report can be volatile, and this one will be no different. It will give us something to discuss next week.