Market Report: Can We Hold?

When I talked with Gordy at 11:15, corn was about 3 cents higher. Normally around a holiday volume gets pretty thin but not today. One interesting point Gordy made was the action of the funds. On his computer he can see what they call a "ladder." At different price levels they can see how many offers there are to sell and buy. Gordy said just above the market there were 500 contracts to buy corn and the next level 800 contracts. Corn moved up filling those orders and all at once there was a huge order to sell hundreds of contracts. Another way of looking at it is the "funds" were defending their short positions trying to keep a lid on the market. The encouraging factor is they continue to get shorter without the market going lower. Hopefully when they cover we can get a zippy rally!

It is pretty much the same story with beans as they are currently up 10-12 cents. Beans too are challenging overhead resistance. This morning the USDA announced a bean sale of 190,000 MT was sold to an unknown destination for the this marketing year. The close today and market action during Friday's shortened session will be important.