Wednesday May 5, 2010

Good afternoon bloggers! Today was a very interesting day to say the least. Corn opened down this morning and stayed down for the majority of the day. Fortunately, a nice corn rally finished the day off. Corn finished +4 cents @ $3.73. Beans opened down and closed down -9 cents @ $9.78.

The AG markets put on a mixed performance throughout the day after initially opening in the red. Corn was in the red for most of the day until a late rally. Rumors are still flying around in regards to China purchasing more corn. We have heard China bought 8-10 cargoes of corn. Regardless of if China did or did not buy corn, it may have boosted corn prices. Domestic corn prices in China have soared since 2009 and it may be that they are looking at the USA to supply them. USDA pegs corn emergence at 19%.

Livestock prices have been doing very well as of late. Hog prices have been climbing higher this spring and last week's cash price is the highest since 2008. S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. were both down. USA dollar is up today and crude oil is down $3.11/barrel.

Soybeans are ~15% planted vs. 5-year average of 8%. Producers have been going hard and are ahead of planting schedule averages. Movement and sales have seemed to slow the past few weeks. South American crop availability is probably to blame for this. New Orleans' soybean values are down 14% from a year ago. South American values are down 31%. The New Orleans soybean basis is at +28 cents over FH May. As of right now the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has not been problematic in the Delta area in regards to freight.

Have a great one,
Nathaniel Dubravec