Mark's Market Talk for June 2, 2025

We may have been lucky we only had 4 trading days last week as it seems we were down every day. July corn ended the week down 15 cents while the December contract was down 12. The crop ratings were well below last year when they were released last Tuesday, but the current weather is non-threatening, so the easiest move is down. Export sales were decent, but the new crop offers out of South America is putting pressure on us as they are working on a possible record second crop corn yield. Beans fared worse last week as July beans were 18 cents lower, and the November contract ended the week 24 lower. Here again good weather is having an impact as the wet areas are starting to see some dry dirt so most of that ground will probably get planted. The Brazilian bean crop has a long tail this year as their harvest was slow to start last winter. Normally by now they are out of beans and buyers head back to us. Typically, we see a pricing opportunity in late May/early June, especially for corn. Perhaps we had one and we did not recognize it. We are down to primarily trading weather and trade talks. The trade issues have quieted down some, but they have not gone away. Some of the long-term weather forecasts have a better than even chance of dry weather in the western corn belt. Some of these areas are already dry but you rarely lose a crop the first of June to drought. We mention the price of oats from time to time. Oats were up 40 cents in the past 2 weeks. It makes you wonder what does the oat know.