The corn market today was sharply lower as most commodity markets were lower led by a $50.00 sell off in gold futures. Recent comments from Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve have given the US dollar a short term boost and commodities some short term pressure. The dollar index rose 120 points today breaking out from a long sell off after Ben Bernanke said he would not rule out raising interest rates to prevent asset bubbles. The weaker dollar we have been seeing has been partially attributed to low interest rates and has supported commodities in general. A factor in the market today was also a unemployment report today showing an unexpected .2% drop in unemployment to 10%. For the week corn was down $.30 with the lower market bringing out talk of poor export and feed demand. There will be a USDA Supply and Demand update Thursday December 10Th where traders will look for updated usage numbers to verify these feelings. Weather forecasts suggest favorable conditions for corn harvest activity over the weekend with winter storms expected for the Midwest the middle of next week.
Soybeans traded lower on a firm US$ and weaker crude oil and gold markets. The USDA did announce the sale of 232,000 tonnes US soybeans to China for 2009/10 marketing year, probably helping beans only lose $.04 for the day. For the week beans were down $.17 but that was after setting new highs for the move the past Monday at $10.78 in the January contract.
Phil Farrell
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