Corn futures finished a couple of cents weaker on what was a very quiet day. Despite today’s weakness, December corn did manage a higher weekly close of 9 ¾. Corn futures only had an 8 to 9 cent range. Corn margins at the CME are being lowered this afternoon as the volatility has slowed in recent sessions. Talk of lower yields helped firm corn this week, but that talk was tempered the last two trading sessions. Harvest progress should be active this weekend, which also limited the upside today. Corn moisture continues to fall at a steady pace each day and stalk standability is a concern. The weather forecast shows some chances for rain early next week, but the extended is warm and dry. The quarterly grain stocks and small grain summary reports will be released at the end of the week. Other news was relatively quiet today. The commitment of traders’ report will be out this afternoon. The corn fund net long position has held steady at just over 200,000 contracts for weeks. The crop progress report on Monday afternoon is expected to show near 8% of corn harvest done, versus 4% this past week.
Soybean futures finished with double digit losses in the first 4 months. Fund buying was absent today as harvest gets started in many spots of the Midwest. The USDA announced a sale of 132,000 tons of China for this marketing year. This has been a steady trend recently, but there was a cancellation of beans to both unknown and China this week. China was also buying October beans out of Brazil this week as it manages its inventory with the Gulf loading slowed down due to the hurricane. PNW capacity is pretty full into November. The outside markets today showed equities and crude lower, with the dollar higher. China nearby crush margins have improved, increasing the nearby appetite for global beans. The quarterly stocks report for beans will be out on Sept. 30th. Bean basis towards the end of last quarter suggests that quarterly stocks could be up slightly.
USDA report – Sept. 10, 2021
USDA – 21/22 Sept
Avg. Est.
USDA – 21/22 Aug
USDA – 20/21 Sept
Avg. Est.
USDA – 20/21 Aug
Corn ending stocks
1.408
1.382
1.242
1.187
1.169
1.117
Bean ending stocks
0.185
0.190
0.155
0.175
0.166
0.160
Wheat ending stocks
0.615
0.616
0.627
USDA – 2021 Sept
Avg. Est.
USDA –2021 Aug
Corn production
14.996
14.942
14.750
Corn yield
176.3
175.8
174.6
Corn harvested acres
85.1
85.1
84.5
Bean production
4.374
4.377
4.339
Bean yield
50.6
50.4
50.0
Bean harvested acres
86.4
86.7
86.7
USDA – Sept
Avg. Est.
USDA - Aug
Brazil Corn
86.0
84.8
87.0
Brazil Soybeans
137.0
136.7
137.0
Argentina Corn
50.0
48.5
48.5
Argentina Soybeans
46.0
45.9
46.0
Corn and bean yields both higher from Aug. Corn harvested acres up, bean harvested acres down
Stanford Grain Company
