Wednesday May 26, 2010

Fact of the day: In Illinois there are 233 people per square mile (Thanks to Chicago).

Today was a productive day and the market was able to make back most of what was lost yesterday. Nearby corn was up 7 cents and closed at $3.71. Nearby beans finished up 7 cents at $9.38.

Across the board corn finished the day 7-8 cents in the green. December 2010 closed at $3.90 and July 2011 corn closed at $4.19. Higher futures can be contributed to the supportive outside markets today. Crude oil futures rose 4%, Gold topped $1,200, and the US dollar was up as well. Seems like everything keeps boiling down to the Chinese. The outside markets today were friendly with talk again of China possibly buying more corn. It appears that whenever we hear friendly news, the market has responded positively. Soybeans have rose from a 10 week low on the strengthening demand from China. China is expected to finish the year (October 1) importing around 46 million tons of soybean supplies. That number is expected to increase to 49 million tons from all suppliers next year.

River basis has been firming for the past few weeks. May to July corn basis levels have all strengthened to better than -10 cents. May to July beans are bidding 2-4 cents over the board. The Morris Terminal is busy unloading trucks and loading barges. Stop in the office sometime and be sure to take a look at new floral additions. We have been seeing some scattered rains throughout Illinois. None of the rain has played a major role on the river and barges have still be able to navigate the river without issues.

Another interesting bit of info I found today is that scientists have identified 4 new strains of wheat-killing fungus. These new strains '...could endanger the global wheat supply.' Now I have no idea how big of a threat this actually is. These may be the same scientists in the 1970's that predicted we were all going to die by 2000 if women continued to use hairspray. Regardless, I thought it was interesting.

Stay classy Illinois,
Nathaniel Dubravec