After reaching near-historic grain prices in early November trading, corn, soybean and wheat all retreated. Corn dropped nearly a dollar and soybeans were even more depressed. But after the early week rally this week, producers have a little more to be thankful about as they sit down to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
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“It’s pretty strong, relatively speaking. We dropped significantly in corn…almost a dollar. What had happened was I think there was a lot of decision making.”
As usual, China’s interest in U.S. commodities played a part in propping prices higher. Boosting the soy complex was an announcement earlier this week from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that the Chinese and U.S. governments reached an agreement that would supply China with 5.5 million MT of new-crop soybeans. “It’s sort of announcing ‘we’ll buy beans from you, will you promise not to embargo?’”
The upper end of corn’s trading range was tested early in November when new-crop December reached $6.05/bu. A lack of selling at the recent lower rates drove prices higher this week. This begs the question: have we established a new trading range?
“I don’t believe we’ll be in a range where we don’t go below $5.20/bu. and stay below $6.00/bu. That would be quite a range. I also don’t think we’re going to see a 20 cents/bu. range.”
