Market News

Mixed end to Tuesday’s session for corn, soybeans, wheat

Soybeans were mixed, mostly modestly higher, after another wide-ranging session. The trade’s monitoring harvest results in Brazil, while waiting for any signs of new demand from China. Crush demand is solid, but there’s a lot of available soybean oil as the industry awaits improvements in biodiesel demand. Overnight support from crude oil and expectations for higher input costs didn’t follow through to the regular session. Soybean meal and oil futures closed mixed, adjusting spreads. AgRural says 39% of Brazil’s corn crop is harvested, compared to 50% a year ago, due to rain, lowering their production guess 3 million tons to a still record large 178 million tons.

Corn was mixed, mostly firm. Unknown destinations bought 196,000 tons of 2025/26 U.S. corn ahead of the open. Most near-term forecasts have scattered, but potentially beneficial, rain in parts of South America, with traders also watching weather, and input costs, in the U.S. ahead of spring planting. AgRural says 36% of Brazil’s first crop corn harvested has wrapped up and 66% of the second crop is planted, both behind a year ago. For Argentina, some areas are expected to see harvest delaying rainfall over the next few days. There’s some talk the U.S. will cut off trade with Spain, which has been an emerging market for U.S. corn. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly ethanol production, stocks, and export numbers are out Wednesday. Feed mill groups from South Korea reportedly bought 68,000 tons and 65,000 tons of corn in international tenders.

The wheat complex was mixed, with Chicago mostly lower and Kansas City and Minneapolis up. Wheat is watching precipitation chances in the Midwest and Plains over the next couple of weeks, which, at least initially, are expected to favor soft red winter growing areas over hard red winter. The trade is also monitoring conditions in Europe, Russia, and Ukraine. Export demand for U.S. wheat is good and while there’s a lot of competition, there are some signs the military action in Iran is slowing shipping out of the Black Sea region, which had already been impacted by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The USDA’s Foreign Ag Service office in Kazakhstan is estimating 2025/26 wheat production at 18 million tons, below the official guess and 24/25. Exports for the current marketing year are seen at 10 million tons, compared to 10.194 million last marketing year. The attaché also notes feed flour exports by Kazakhstan to China could hit 3 million tons by the end of August.