Tough Week for Corn and Beans
There is an old phrase in the grain markets that if the bears have Thanksgiving the bulls will have Christmas. There is no question the bears had Thanksgiving and it sure looks like they will have Christmas too. While corn did close around 3 cents higher on Friday, for the week corn lost around 6 cents a bushel. Domestic and export demand for corn is very strong and that should be supportive. Export sales and loadings are well ahead of last year and the pace we need to be on to reach the USDA export forecast for the year. However, with the stock market under serious pressure it seems to be hanging over the corn market too.
Soybeans had a really tough week closing 6 to 8 cents lower Friday and for the week lost around 15 cents a bushel. The losses came in spite of China buying for the second week in a row a lot of beans from the United States! There were also daily export sale announcements of beans sold to an "unknown" destination. Many times "unknown" turns out to be China. However, all the sales of beans to China did not seem to support beans. Traders said China buying was old news! In addition there was rain in the forecast for dry areas of Southern Brazil. It seems it is next to impossible to get any bullish news in the grain markets!