Mark's Market Talk

We saw some more up and down markets last week. There is so much going on in the world right now we can make a news story out of a lot of things. Wet conditions are lingering in the northern plains which is holding up all planting. They are past the federal crop corn plant date, so they are losing 1% of their coverage each day. The question is will they switch to beans or take the money. Some think we may lose a million acres of corn and the same might be said about spring wheat in the same area. The eastern corn belt is still wet and trying to finish planting their crops. Summer weather will have a bigger influence on the crops this year as most were planted later than normal and do not need any additional stress. Other bullish items include Russia not allowing the Ukraine to export crops unless the world reduces the sanctions that are in place. Currently no one is offering to do so. China appears to be interested in more US beans as we are very competitive price wise. On the flip side China has agreed to relax their rules and will buy Brazilian corn, which has rarely or never happened. This action is both price and political driven. Our administration has said if China invades Taiwan, we will support Taiwan and China does not want to hear this. Last Friday corn had a rally that put 12 cents back on which limited the weekly loss on both the July and Dec futures to 2 cents for the week. Beans on the other hand had a strong week as July was 27 higher and Nov was 22 higher. This week we have a holiday shortened trade as the board is open 4 days. The weather will continue to be monitored as the trade knows that less than perfect weather this summer will be a bigger issue than normal.