Mark's Market Talk

Last week was another mixed week in the commodity markets. December corn ended the week 10 cents higher while January beans lost 22 cents on the week. There was a lack of fresh news as we continue to trade the same stories. Currently there are ships moving through the Black Sea and it appears this will continue for the time being. Mid-week we saw a report of a misguided missile killing two polish citizens. Initially Russia was blamed and we saw an immediate rally in the grains. Later it was determined it came from the Ukraine fighters and things settled down. It shows us how volatile this war is and how it can be a market mover. The bean market didn’t have any bullish news to trade on, so the simple course was lower. Crude oil ended the week below 80.00 which was bearish to grains. Gasoline demand continues to shrink and with that the amount diesel being produced is shrinking leading to reduced supplies. With the heating season starting up, the supply will tighten even more with the amount of heating oil sold in the northeast. This will become more problematic as the push for more electric vehicles reduces the gas demand even more. Another railroad union voted down the new agreement which means three of the twelve unions have voted no. This raises the odds of a rail strike becoming a possibility. Tie this with the low river levels and transportation of goods in this country is suffering. This affects farmers on both ends as it restricts grain movement and may delay the timely delivery of crop inputs for next years’ crops. However even with all the negative things going on in our world we still have many things to be thankful for. We need to go into the Thanksgiving holiday season with this in mind and give thanks we live in a free country where we still have rights. There are many people in the world that lack freedom and suffer from poor policies that causes them to live in despair. Put into contrast our problems are small compared to this.