With the US holiday last Monday, the market seemed to have decided to have a quiet week. Except for spring wheat, everything was down a little on the week. Even the CBOT had a quiet week with the futures trading in grain said to be “light”..........please click PDF to see more details

Comparing the end of the week prices this week with last week makes it all look very quiet but there was enough activity during the week to make things a little exciting. The week ended with not much happening to corn prices, even though they were up a little on Friday, while both soybeans and soymeal moved lower on the week: USD 4 m/t for beans and USD 6 m/t or so for soymeal. Winter wheat was steady but spring wheat had a nice little USD 4 to 5 m/t price rally..............please click PDF to see more details

The USDA WASDE report was the big news this week but judging by the activity in prices it was not too exciting a report. From a corn point of view then report overall was quite neutral with crops up in some areas and down in others but with ending world corn stocks expected to be about 13 percent lower. There was very little change in US corn numbers although there were some post-report comments that corn use in ethanol should have increased – perhaps in the next report........please click PDF to see more details

It looks like the big news in the US this week was that surprise snowfall in winter wheat country and the flooding in corn and soybean regions. So now the winter wheat crop may be in question while the farmers can’t get into the fields to plan corn and beans........please click PDF to see more details

There were some weather-related ups and downs in US grain and oilseed prices this week. Crop planting progress was not a good as the trade had hoped --- corn planting was held back by cold and wet weather. However, knowing the US farmer, give them a little sunshine and they will quickly catch up on the planting. The weather forecasts for the next couple of weeks look much drier and a little warmer, so the farmers will be out planting like mad.

It was another down week for most everything – in the futures market corn was down by about USD 5 to 6 m/t, soybeans down by around USD 2 m/t, soymeal down by USD 8 m/t and winter wheat down by USD 8 m/t. The drop in futures prices does not always get reflected in export prices but you can be quite sure that with everything lower, the trend in export prices should also be to lower, barring any logistics problems that could keep export prices up..........please click PDF to see more details

This week is a holiday week in many countries with some closed last Thursday and Friday and others closed next Monday. These three/four day weekends can lead to very strange price action as many traders, especially futures traders, try to cover their positions in advance of a long weekend --- no one wants to take on a three-day risk.

Grain markets in the US and Europe were closed in Friday but earlier in the week we did have a small rally in all grain and soybean/soymeal prices..........

There didn’t seem to be a great deal of excitement in the grain and oilseed markets this week as prices just seemed to be drifting.
Concern is increasing in Argentina about the rain effect on the soybean harvest but the weather guys say that hot and dry weather is approaching – so the harvest may just be all fine..................please click PDF to see more details

The USDA’s Prospective Plantings report was a surprise for soybean people as the USDA has estimated plantings higher than anyone had expected and, I guess, a surprise too for corn folks as the corn acres are lower........please see PDF to see more details

One would be very hard pressed to find any grain/oilseed prices that moved higher this week. Corn prices dropped by USD 4 to 5 m/t while soybeans were down by USD 7 to 9 m/t and soybean meal was down by about USD 10 m/t. The same goes for wheat where US soft red winter wheat was down by about USD 4 m/t while hard red winter wheat slipped by USD 7 to 10 m/t...........please click PDF to see more details