Mark's Market Talk for January 27, 2025
Jan 27, 2025

Normally this time of year we see some quiet days in the grain office as the first of the year corn has been bought, and producers are waiting for the spring markets. This year we have been busy every day buying grain. Part of this is due to the great harvest we had and the amount of grain that went into storage last fall. Another factor is the rally we have seen since mid-December that is encouraging producers to sell grain now and take the additional money being offered. We are still seeing lots of volatility in the markets coming from several sources. President Trump was sworn in last Monday and the threat of tariffs was softened a bit as he is giving some countries time to prove they shouldn’t get tariffs. South American weather is still in the forefront as it changes almost daily. The Brazilian bean harvest has been slow to get started. This may affect their second corn crop if planting gets delayed too much. However, they do have some time to catch up. Argentina is still fighting some drought in places. They seem to keep rain in the forecast but so far it has not amounted to much. The funds have added to their long positions in both corn and bean contracts. They are long about 320,000 corn contracts and 40,000 bean contracts. About 3 weeks ago they were 40,000 to 60,000 short on beans. Money is pouring into the commodity trade at the same time money is pouring into the stock market. Makes you think we must be printing more money daily. Last week was a 4-day trade week and corn closed 2 cents higher while beans were up 22 cents.