They are staring to quantify the damage in Iowa from storms earlier this week. The system is being described as an inland hurricane. Social media is awash with pictures of corn laid flat as far as the eye can see. Many think that the USDA average yield of 181.8bu/ac is now nothing more than fantasy. Some thought it was fantasy prior to the storm but that’s retro speculation now they have some meat in their argument.
The funds stepped in as big net buyers overnight picking up around 1.25mt of corn at Chicago. It was a buy corn / sell wheat session from the funds but wheat did manage to hang onto gains as corn dragged it higher.
One report claimed that between 200 million (5mt) and 400 million bushels (10.1mt) of corn has been taken out. Fundamentally corn needed something bullish and this may be just enough to help. US exports have been poor and ending stocks were looking fatter than  Emellia (my daughter is about 34 weeks pregnant, bad example I know but man she’s round). Cash basis bids across the Midwest we mixed, the trade appearing to be slower to react at a local level to the storm damage than the futures market is.
More fuel to the corn market came from a report out of China stating 100% of the state owned corn offered at auction was taken up overnight. The volume on offer was about 4mt.
Soybean futures also jumped higher on the back of good export demand out of the USA and storm damage. The move higher in bean futures rolled through to a higher close in both ICE canola and Paris rapeseed. Saskatchewan cropland soil moisture is rated at 51% adequate.