Market News

Corn, wheat down on weather, soybeans follow bean oil

Soybeans were mostly higher. Soybeans continued to follow bean oil, which made another run to new highs on last week’s bullish RVO numbers. That included an expanded trading limit up move in July bean oil. Meal was pushed to new lows by on the likelihood of a stronger soybean crush pace to meet biofuels expectations implying an increase in supply. The USDA says 66% of U.S. soybeans are in good to excellent shape, down 2% on the week, with 93% planted and 84% emerged. Export inspections were down from last week and last year, while staying just ahead of what’s needed to meet USDA projections for the current marketing year. The leading destinations were Germany and Japan. U.S. soybeans continue to see a noted lack of demand from China because of competition from Brazil and tariff issues with China. The NOPA says member firms crushed 192.8 million bushels of soybeans during May, just below expectations, but still up on the year. Soybean oil stocks dropped sharply.

Corn was lower on speculative and technical selling. The USDA was expected to raise the corn condition rating in the weekly update and there was spillover pressure from bean meal due to the probability of higher production and more competition with corn as a feedstock. As of Sunday, 72% of corn is in good to excellent condition, up 1%, and 94% of the crop has emerged. Crop weather looks mostly favorable over the near-term. Export inspections were lower than the previous week, but higher than a year ago, continuing to move faster than what’s needed to reach or exceed the USDA’s guess for 2024/25, primarily to Japan and Mexico. There was some harvest delaying rain over the weekend in parts of Argentina and Brazil. For now, those delays in Brazil are less of an issue because of the late start to planting in some areas, but that could become an issue if the delays persist.

The wheat complex was lower on fund and technical selling. Chicago and Kansas City were watching the winter crop harvest and Minneapolis was lower on rain chances in the northern U.S. Plains and Canadian Prairies. For winter wheat, 52% of the crop is rated good to excellent, a decline of 2%, with 93% headed and 10% emerged. For spring wheat, 57% is reported as good to excellent, a jump of 4%, 89% has emerged and 4% is headed. The trade is also monitoring new crop export demand. While 2025/26 sales were solid just ahead of the beginning of the new marketing year, inspections have gotten off to a slow start. The USDA says inspections were up on the week, down on the year, mainly to Nigeria and the Philippines, with the pace already behind 2024/25. Recent precipitation in some of the drier parts of Australia, Europe, Russia, and Ukraine has been scattered.