Corn and Soybeans Hold Support Last Week

On the positive side corn remained range bound and held support last week even though corn lost around 5 cents a bushel. Corn is being supported by good domestic and export demand. Plus, there is still a fair amount of corn in the field across a large portion of the Midwest, it is cold and in many areas a fair amount of snow cover. However the market does not appear to be concerned about the mounting field losses.

Beans held a little better and gained about 5 cents a bushel on the week. It sure helped when President Trump tweeted that the talks with China on the trade war and tariffs were going very well. I am still a little skeptical that this can be resolved soon. Apparently there is a lot more than trade affecting these talks. China is building up their military and building a man made island in the South China Sea. China has installed an air base on the island with missiles.

The issue is that this military base is right in a major world shipping lane. With the missiles China could control a lot of the world trade, The United States has told China this is unacceptable. So, there is a lot more behind the trade war with China than just trade!