Mark's Market Talk for January 2, 2025

Since we had a short trading week for December 22-26, you will also get a short report. Corn finished the week 8 cents higher as the support under the market is helping it along. Export sales for the 24 crop are coming in at a record pace. The world seems to have a healthy appetite for corn and right now we have the available supply. There will be a crop report out in early January, and some see another yield reduction possible due to the amount of overly dry corn that was harvested this fall. 12 percent corn yields about 3.5 percent less than 15% corn. On a 200-bushel yield that would be a loss of almost 7 bushels. Beans were up about 11 cents for the week, and this included an 8-cent loss on Friday. Holiday shortened weeks sometimes do funny things and we have another one this week. We shouldn’t see a lot of action ahead of the crop report, but it takes less action on slow trade days to cause bigger swings. One last comment. For those who believe that the oat knows. March oats were down 33 cents last week.