The fundamental and technical landscapes for corn and soybeans appear to be telling two different stories. Here’s how we read into it.
Corn and soybeans struggled today while wheat snuck out a small gain. December corn futures were 5 ¼ cents lower to 420 ¾. November soybeans lost 17 ¾ cents to settle at 1016 ¼. December wheat futures settled 2 ¼ cents higher to 594 ¾.
There was a flash sale reported from the USDA this morning. Private exporters reported sales of 166k metric tons or about 6.1 million bushels of soybeans for delivery to China during the 2024/2025 marketing year. This was the second flash sale of soybeans this week. Sticking with export data, yesterday’s weekly export inspections report was strong at 1.431 million metric tons, that was above the top end of expectations. Weekly inspections for corn were reported at 933k, that was within the range of expectations.
Crop progress showed good/excellent conditions for soybeans unchanged at 63%. Harvest progress has advanced to 47%, that’s 2% ahead of the average pace. Corn conditions were also unchanged with harvest 30% complete, 4% behind average pace. Attention through the back half of the week will turn to Friday’s WASDE report. Expectations are for soybean yield to be unchanged at 53.2 bushels per acre. The average analyst estimate for corn yield is expected to drop 1/10 of a percent to 183.5 bushels per acre.
It was another higher day in the livestock markets with December futures 85 cents higher to settle at 187.87, the highest closing price since July 31st. The most actively traded November feeder cattle contract settled 1.15 higher to 250.30, like live cattle, that was the highest close since July 31st. December lean hogs were 35 cents higher to 77.17 which was the highest settlement since the middle of May. For those who watch the relative strength index, they will notice that all three of these markets had an RSI above 70 at today’s close, which is what many technicians refer to as overbought territory.
This morning’s boxed beef report was mostly mixed, choice cuts were 1.09 higher to 307.02, select cuts were down 18 cents to 289.15. Yesterday’s 5-area average price for live steers was reported at 186.89, we’ll call that pretty steady with recent reports. Monday’s slaughter was reported at 110k head, 9k less than last week and about 13k less than last year.
Historically, many analysts point to October being a fairly friendly time of year, but note that uncertainty around an election year could add potential headwinds to seasonal tendencies. The other thing that will continue to be watched closely is economic data, much of which has been strong as of late which analysts note as a tailwind recently.
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