Markets: Corn and Beans Higher

It was a pretty good day for corn as it started the week closing around 6 to 7 higher. December corn closed at $4.51-3/4. That was the highest close for December corn since July of 2014. On Friday the USDA estimated corn would have a national average yield of 166.8 bushel an acre which was unchanged from the June USDA estimate. Some traders are now quietly about a national yield of 160 bushel an acre. Quite simply corn prices are going up because traders are starting to think that the production this season is going down.

It was a similar story for beans posting gains of around 2 cents in old crop and 6 cents in new. Too much rain is also affecting beans. However, bean traders do not seem to be as concerned about all the rain as corn traders. I do not quite understand why. One of the old sayings about beans is that "they do not like wet feet."  The point being beans do not tolerate excessive rain as well as corn.