Mark's Market Talk for August 4th, 2025

The commodity markets seem to be running out of gas as we head toward what appears to be a record harvest. December corn lost 8 cents last week, while November beans were down 31 cents. The funds added to their short positions in both crops. They seem content for the time being to stay on the short side until they have a reason to even up. The weather continues to be non-threatening. The extended forecast does not contain any wild temps so we may coast into the harvest season. Right now, the biggest threat may come from an onslaught of fungal diseases from all the wet conditions we have had this season. Of course, we have chemicals available to fight these if producers are willing to spend some money, however the ROI can be hard to compute, and some feel they have already spent too much on this crop. Old crop and new crop prices are coming together, unfortunately for those with old crop grain that price is coming down to the new. Today it appears most end users are current with their needs, which is slowing the domestic demand some. On the bright side we did have some excellent corn export sales last week as orders were placed for about 70 million bushels for the new crop. Our total sales are almost triple what was on the books a year ago. Makes you wonder if some of our foreign buyers think we are bottoming out.