Mark's Market Talk for January 29, 2024

If we could have ended last week prior to Friday, we would have said the lows are in and we are headed higher. But then Friday came along and beans pushed 4 cents lower while corn was a nickel lower. For the week corn was almost a penny higher, and beans closed 14 cents lower. The funds did not want to close up shop for the weekend on a higher note. There is too much weather news coming out of South America and it is hard to know who or what to believe, Early bean harvest in northern Brazil has been disappointing, just like it was predicted to be. The current forecast is calling for relief in Argentina with rain and cooler temps. Back here the weather has moderated in the corn belt and some long-term forecasts are showing moderate temps and decent rain for the upcoming crop season. We can only hope they are right. Along with that they are predicting trend line yields for the coming year. If demand doesn’t pick up, we could be swimming in corn next fall. An old saying comes to mind here, the cure for high prices is high prices. China is finally getting serious about raising corn. And somehow, they did increase their production in the past year. It has been a long time since we have seen a large corn sale to China. They had taken the place of the old Soviet Union that used to buy a lot of our grain. Now if they can provide more of their feed grain, it will cripple our chances of better prices until we either back up production or find new demand. Mother nature can and probably will play a large role in all of this.