Daily Grain Comments

Corn and wheat futures were lower and soybeans higher in today’s trading. Dec corn finished down 1 ¾ cents today but, gained 29 cents this week. USDA was out with slightly higher production numbers this morning but, a lot of focus is on the weekend weather with frost and freezing expected through much of the northern corn belt. Nov soybeans finished 28 cents higher today capping a 79 cent gain this week. Delayed harvest along with good demand in place from both exporters and processors helped support prices even as USDA showed increased supplies will be ahead both domestically and from South America. Dec Chicago wheat futures finished 6 cents lower. Increased US and world supplies pressured wheat prices.

National average on highway diesel fuel prices continued down this week dropping almost 2 cents. Though supplies remain strong, trading this week is likely to start pushing prices up again.

Export sales out yesterday were generally disappointing for corn and soybeans. Substantially below the previous week’s very good numbers. However export sales still look strong overall. For the week ending September 24, unshipped grain export balances reached 35.3 million metric tons. 34% higher than last year at this time. Unshipped balances of soybeans are 95% higher than last year while corn unshipped balances are 15% higher than last year at this time. Part of the reason for the higher level of unshipped balances may be due to corn and soybean harvests that are delayed by rainy weather. Harvest pace should pick up over the next month compressing demand for transportation services across all modes into a shorter time period.

Have a great weekend!
Mike Etienne