Market News

Soybeans, corn up Friday, still down on week

Soybeans were modestly higher on short covering and technical buying, still seeing a significant weekly drop. Beans were oversold and encouraged by talk of a trade deal with China, even if details, and especially ag details, have been slow to surface. The general tenor about trade negotiations out of the Trump administration continues to be largely positive, even without any widespread public progress in tariff talks ahead of the “90 deals in 90 days” deadline. U.S. crop development weather looks generally favorable with the USDA’s weekly crop progress and condition report out at 4 Eastern/3 Central Monday. Mexico bought 119,746 tons of new crop U.S. beans, following up on Thursday’s old crop purchase by Egypt. Soybean meal was firm and soybean oil was weak on product spread adjustments. Statistics Canada says 2025 planted area for canola was 21.457 million acres, 2.5% less than 2024, with soybean area at 2.996 million acres, 3.3% more than a year ago.

Corn was modestly higher on short covering and technical buying but closing sharply lower on the week. Corn was due for a bounce, but gains were at least somewhat limited by the generally favorable crop weather. Corn is also watching harvest in Argentina and Brazil. Argentina is reportedly 55.3% planted. Brazil’s government says it is raising biofuels blending rates due in part to the larger corn crop this year. There was also some position squaring ahead of the USDA’s quarterly grain stocks and planted area totals out Monday at Noon Eastern/11 Central. Statistics Canada says farmers planted 3.732 million acres of corn this year, a rise of 2.2% from a year ago.

The wheat complex was mixed, closing with big week-to-week losses. The trade is watching U.S. and world winter wheat harvest activity and spring wheat conditions in the northern U.S. Plains and Canada. Statistics Canada says farmers planted 26.925 million acres of wheat this year, up 1% from last year, with spring wheat at 18.809 million acres, down 0.7% and winter wheat at 1.585 million acres, a jump of 18.2%. The trade is also watching planting and/or development weather in Australia, China, Europe, Russia, and Ukraine. Argentina’s government will reportedly extend its reduced export tariff for wheat through the end of March 2026, with 72.7% of the crop planted.