Market Report: Corn and Beans Can’t Close Higher 3 Days In A Row

I knew it was wishful thinking that maybe corn could close higher three days in a row. On Thursday, corn lost 1-2 cents. The Dollar Index was higher and had one of the biggest up moves this year. If you look at a chart, it is still in the same range it has been in for a year. Never mind that traders never mention it when it drops but they are always concerned when it is higher. It did not help that the weekly export sales report showed only 9.8 million bushels of corn was sold for export. Export sales for corn is lagging but it normally picks up in December and January. In the overnight trade, corn was up to down a fraction so not much going on in corn overnight.

Beans had more positive news going but still closed 6-9 cents lower. The higher Dollar Index overwhelmed great export sales. Of course that is typical. It seems good export sales on Wednesday cause the funds to sell. Export sales for beans had another whopper at 74.6 million bushels. In addition, the USDA under the daily reporting system announced a bean sale of 15.4 million bushels sold to an unknown destination for the 2015-16 crop year. Maybe eventually the market will pay attention to the bean demand. It had been very warm and dry in South America but they put rain in the forecast for next week. Of course their record bean crop is already in the bin even though they are just starting to plant it!