Holiday Trading Schedule

With the 4th of July holiday tomorrow the grain and livestock markets closed at 12:05 today. It seemed a bit unusual to me but the grain and livestock markets will not reopen until 8:30 Friday morning. I thought maybe there would be an overnight session Thursday evening. Then I thought maybe the markets would close early on Friday but they will close at the normal time. Guess that shows what I know!

Manny times the 4th of July weekend is a turning point for the corn and soybean markets. That means in most years prices turn lower. Traders have a pretty good idea of how many acres of all the crops were planted and the crop condition ratings. So traders assume there is a big crop and all they have to do is sell contracts and wait for the fall harvest.

Everything is different this year will all the questions about how many acres actually got planted, what will the yield be with the late planting and all the water damage. Corn and soybean prices were under pressure earlier this week but rallied nicely today. Could this be one of the unusual years that corn and bean prices rally into fall harvest?