Markets Firmer Monday

It was nice to see corn start the week closing 3-4 cents higher. Corn recovered most of Friday's losses. The new president of Argentina followed through on a campaign promise and removed  the 20 percent export tax on corn. That apparently was already "in the market" because the announcement did not take corn lower. The thought is more corn from Argentina will be put onto the world market because it is more competitive. Export Loadings this morning were supportive at 566,835 MT, which was up 13 percent from last week. I saw a report from the International Grains Council ( I think that is part of the United Nations) that Brazilian corn is $173 per ton higher than corn sourced out of the United States. Hopefully that is true and we will continue to see U.S. export sales continue to pick up.

Beans had a good day, too, closing 3-4 cents higher, getting back about half of Friday's losses. Argentinean beans got more competitive on the world market today, too, but not much. The export tax was reduced from 35 percent to 30 percent. Another factor in play is that the Argentina government is talking about devaluating the peso. If and how much is yet to be determined. Beans had a pretty good Export Loadings number of 1.344 MMT, and that was supportive. Year to date we are only about 9.5 percent behind last year's pace. It would be really nice to see some follow-through Tuesday.