Wheat futures were the big gainer in US futures markets overnight. The punters were sure that the USDA would reduce crop condition ratings in the weekly crop progress report due out after the close. Looking through the report as I write shows they were wrong. Winter wheat rated good...

It’s hard to know which way to look at the moment. You have weather in the US causing floods, you have dry weather in parts of the Canadian prairies and the Volga Valley in SE Russia. Increasing yield prospects for winter wheat in the EU. Drought continuing in both...

The situation in the USA is going from bad to worse as wet weather hampers planting progress for corn and flooding takes out fields that have already been sown. Existing infrastructure that is capable of alleviating the impact of moderate to major floods is struggling with what some areas...

In the US overnight session corn futures rallied to contract highs only to see profit taking, spread trade and technical selling stop another higher close in the day session. Wheat futures at Chicago also took a breather as the punters took a day out to re-evaluate their position and...

USDA crop progress report pegs corn sowing in the states at 58%, an increase of just 9% week on week. The 5 year average is about 90%. Illinois and Indiana still have a few hurdles with just 35% and 22% sown respectively.  Ohio and S.Dakota are also in a...

With the US markets closed for a public holiday there’s nothing but the weather to talk about out of the USA. It’s getting very wet in places, Kansas being one state suffering. Storms continue to create havoc dropping huge amounts of rain in a short amount of time. Some...

It’s now definitely a weather market in the US with the forecast predicting a continuation of the wet weather into next week. There’s a very real chance that large acres of corn will be left unsown even with the current price and subsidy package on offer. Next week’s crop...

US grain futures were lower overnight, the main reason seems to be the announcement of an additional $14.5bn in farm aid for US farmers. The message this sent to the trade was that the China / USA trade dispute is likely to be much longer than initially expected. The...

It’s snowing in western Nebraska and as of last Tuesday there was still 47 million acres (total 92.8 forecast) of corn to be sown in the USA. 2019 is shaping up to be one of the latest corn plants on record. Now with the soybean rebate, subsidy, anti tariff...

When politics play in commodity markets they tend to get murky pretty quickly. Last night we saw US soybeans cop a double whammy thanks to the US trade problems with China. Bloomberg said leaked documents had suggested that the government is about to introduce a US$2.00/bu subsidy to farmers...