Note: Corn Products in Chicago will open at 5 AM Monday, October 26, 2009 for truck corn deliveries.

Corn futures ended lower while soybean and wheat futures were mixed in today’s trading. Most futures started higher on the day but, lower equity and oil markets along with a stronger dollar took their toll at the end of the day. Dec corn finished down 5 3/4 today but, gained an impressive 26 cents this week. Nov soybeans were up a ½ cent today and 28 ½ higher for the week. Dec Chicago wheat futures finished 4 lower while July ’10 was 1 ¼ higher.

National average on highway diesel fuel prices jumped 10 ½ cents in this weeks report to its highest level since last November. As Zach mentioned last night though stocks are ample historically small drops have given traders a notion to run with.

Harvest weather continues to be the biggest issue here locally and throughout most of the Midwest. Rain amounts from 1 ½ inches to over 3 inches have been seen in our trade area the last couple of days. Wet and cool conditions will persist in the coming week giving us only small windows of opportunity for harvest activity.

Have a great weekend!
Mike Etienne

Thursday October 22nd, 2009

Good evening blog readers. It is Energy Thursday, but seeing most of our readers farm, I going to make the assumption that readers this evening are frustrated, wet, and anxious; therefore I will keep it quick and to the point. This week has been another record setter. Crude broke the $82 dollar mark yesterday after the release of the weekly DOE report. Although there were builds of 1.3 million bpd on crude, early expectation were reported at 3.8 million bpd. The market reacted accordingly and the bulls were off to the races breaking the $82 mark, but unable to hold on as crude settled at $81.37. Draws on both gasoline and heating oil helped push both products up about .06 cents. Overall diesel has jumped at the pump almost .40 cents over the past three weeks. Today showed a little profit taking, with small losses across the board. A cent on heating oil and gas, .18 cents on crude. We discussed this last week, but refinery utilization is still way down at 81.1%, which is a slight increase .2% from last week. We are still swimming in supply across the board, but the weekly DOE report seemed to give the bulls just enough to run it up. Four week demand is up on gas 4.2%, while diesel is down 12.1% from last year. A stronger dollar helped keep larger gains at bay today, but with positive earning reports by the blue chips and the index of leading economic indicators rising 1% to 103.5, its highest level since October 2007, the bulls are still in control. The good news is with high energy, we might see more gains in the grain world. Most of us won't mine paying more for our fuel if we can see large grain gains. With the rain in the near forecast, everyone will be anxious to get back in the fields, but as Scott mentioned a few days ago, remember safety; There is always another harvest but not always a second chance to slow down and make a good decision.
Good luck out there.
Zach

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Wow! The word of the day in the commodity markets was inflation with many commodities making new highs for their respective moves. The counter to the commodity strength was the new 12 month low for the U.S. Dollar index near 75.00.

Corn and soybean markets posted impressive rallies today with corn up 13 to new highs and November beans closing over $10.00 for the since Mid-August. The market strength was partially attributed to poor harvest weather progress and forecast for more of the same but also by outside market influences. Pick your commodity sand it was pretty much higher today with crude oil up $2.00 and now over $80.00 for first time since last October gold was up $5.00 to $1063 and ounce.

It was a slow day harvest day today and some of us actually had time to speak to Fox Business Channel. Their main topic of discussion was the strong corn and bean markets and the hedge fund money that seems to be investing in commodities again...

Phil

Tuesday October 20th, 2009

I am hoping that most of you farmers are too tired tonight to read this blog due to completing a full day's worth of harvest. Unfortunately I suspect that the clouds didn't allow many the opportunity to get much done today on soybeans. Corn closed down $.01 today and soybeans down $.14 in a market that ran out of fund buying today. Crude finished down $.50 and the down dn 50 pts.

Corn has been trickling into the elevator with moisture anywhere from 24-38% and test weight from 48-54. It looks like corn that was fully mature has lost 1-2% in moisture over the last 3-4 days as the weather has gotten back to NORMAL for this time of year. The extended forecast calls for below normal temps and above normal precip so lets hope for the "weathermen are only right 50% of the time".

Soybeans had far and away the biggest harvest day so far yesterday and many have tried again today with mixed results, where is the sun? Soybean basis continues to have a firm tone to it as harvest can't catch up to the current demand. Yields on beans have been at the very least better than they looked - to very good.

Corn yields have also been better than the corn looked but on average 20 bu less than last year. Nationally, I read today that in Hopkinsville KY, 4500 acres have been picked with a running average of 200 bu/ac on ground that has a 5 year avg of 155! Good luck to all of those out there harvesting and remember safety.

Scott Meyer

Monday October 19th, 2009

Corn and soybeans saw double digit rallies again on Monday as concerns continue to mount about the slow progress of the corn and soybean harvest, as rain continues to hamper harvest progress. The U.S. harvest of corn and soybeans is off to the slowest start since at least 1985, when the U.S.D.A. began issuing weekly harvest progress figures, the agency's latest weekly report showed. The USDA reported on Monday that only 17 percent of the U.S. corn crop has been harvested, down significantly from the 5-year seasonal pace of 46 percent. It said crop conditions remain favorable. The USDA said that only 30 percent of the US soybean crop was harvested, compared to a normal season pace of 72%.

U.S. stocks rose to fresh 12-month highs on Monday as optimistic investors rode a wave of solid quarterly earnings. The dollar hovered near a 14-month low against the euro on Monday as investors bet the Federal Reserve will hold U.S. interest rates near zero well into the coming year. The euro traded within half a cent of $1.50, a level not seen since August 2008.

Chris Spurlock