Mark's Market Talk for December 22, 2025

Another week and another mixed ending on the board of trade. Corn added 3 cents last week as the fundamentals are still supportive. We are well priced in the world and have the current supply. It is thought the funds are short 20 or 30,000 contracts. One of the casualties of the government shutdown is the lack of a current COT report that tells us the longs and shorts of the market. They are still releasing the back reports, about 2 times a week and they will not be able to get current till after the first of the year. Therefore, we are depending on private sources to give us an idea of where the money stands. Beans dropped another 27 cents last week and part of the reason is the number of long contracts there are. At the start of harvest the funds were within 20,000 contracts of even. Last week it was reported they were thought to be 140 to 160,000 long. If the government had been operating correctly, we would have an actual number. And if producers had known the funds had grown that long, we might have seen more beans moving 3 to 4 weeks ago before they started dropping in price. The next 2 weeks are holiday weeks. With Christmas and New Years falling on Thursday, we will probably see short trade volumes on Wednesday and Friday both weeks. However, smaller volume does not always mean less volatility. There have been some wild swings on days like that if a news story breaks and the computers get wound up. Even though we have had a rough 2025 market wise, we all need to take time and enjoy our families this week as we celebrate the real reason for Christmas. We all hope next year is better.