Markets Closed Today

It is Good Friday today and the grain markets are closed. Trading will begin again Sunday evening with the overnight session. There was not a lot of price action Thursday as corn closed up around a penny. Export sales were OK at 35.6 million bushels. While we are seeing the export pace pick up, we are still about 6 percent behind the USDA projections for the year. Corn planting is being delayed a bit by all the rain in the South and Southeast but it appears warmer and dryer weather is in the forecast. There was another corn sale announced by the USDA of 260,000 MT sold to Taiwan for the 2015/16 marketing year.

Beans gained about 5 cents Thursday, and that was only about a penny off the high of the day. For the week May beans gained 13 cents. Export sales for beans were solid at 15.1 million bushels. This puts our year-to-date total at 1.61 billion bushels, which is well on pace to meet the USDA projection for the year. Even though there is a big crop in Brazil, beans from the U.S. are very competitive when you consider all the extra costs of getting a deal done They have a very high inflation rate, ships wait for weeks to get loaded, there is government corruption and big changed in their currency values.