Saturday, November 23, 2024

When the weather broke, U.S. farmers did what they are good at doing, which is running day and night when they can, and sleeping next winter. The results were mixed, and a little confusing to the markets.

Crop progress? Good temperatures now will still give us a normal crop. This will mostly be true for next week, then we go downhill fast.

Continued rain across the Midwest dominates all thinking about marketing these days. There was virtually no progress in planting last week, and will be none expected this week.

Ahead of the USDA Prospective Plantings Report, we have estimates of large increases in corn acres and significant decreases in soybean acres.

So, last week I said the rally was over, but I still hadn't heard the sounds of It's Over!, my favorite Roy Orbison song....

Factors outside markets seemed to be helping grain prices: the weak dollar, the high crude price, the Libyan situation were all cited as reasons for high prices. And now, the focus of the world is on Japan and the catastrophe there.

Instead of grain marketing insight, Marlin Clark shares a different story this week -- a story that is more important than the price of corn, and we're privileged to share it.

Even one of the strongest of chart signals did not permanently break the corn rally last week. This market has not been shot, stabbed,...

The reality is that supply is going to get tighter as the market year goes on. This is driving corn prices toward the record highs of the 2008 year.

Not even Marvin Gaye can tell us what's goin' on in the grain markets these days.