Wednesday, December 25, 2024

The trouble with fundamental news coming from the government is that the market is forced to trade them as fact. Never mind that Ohio traders do not believe the acres said to be planted in Ohio. They are right until they are proven wrong.

The ugly reality in the Buckeye State: Ohio farmers will have a small crop, but the rest of the nation will not.

The shutdown of Bionol, the ethanol plant in Clearfield, Pa., has thrown a monkey wrench into grain marketing in the East currently. A plant...

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.