4th of July Market Trading Schedule a Bit Unusual

Early this week the 4th of July Holiday trading schedule was released by the CME. I was a little surprised that it will be the normal schedule on Friday. Most of the time it seems that the grain and livestock markets close early on a Friday of a long holiday weekend. Then I was surprised again that the grain markets will not have an overnight session Monday night. So, it is a normal day of trading today. Trading in the grains and livestock will remain closed until Tuesday morning at 8:30 am.

I sure thought there would be an overnight session Monday night. Maybe it was a trade-off, normal day today instead of an over night session Monday night? Maybe traders are thankful to have 3 days off so they do not have to think about the markets? There sure was a lot of action Wednesday morning after the USDA released the Planted Acres and Grain Stocks Reports. Corn and bean planted acres were below what the market expected and the grain stocks were slightly below trade guesses.

Because corn and bean carryover stocks are so tight, barely at pipeline levels it is critical that we get trendline or above yields this year. That is the unknown with drought conditions in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and parts of Iowa. The other unknown is the second crop of corn in Brazil that saw a very dry growing season. Plus there have been 3 nights with frost damage because it was planted late. It sure appears we will see a lot of big swings in prices yet this summer.