Friday, July 23, 2021, 7:25 a.m. – Yesterday was a mostly negative day for our markets.  Harvest corn closed down 7 1/4, harvest soybeans closed con 27 1/2, harvest spring wheat closed up 6 1/4 and harvest winter wheat closed down 18 1/2.  In the overnight trade corn, soybeans and winter wheat remain on the negative side with spring wheat now on both sides of the ledger.  Oil closed up $1.61 yesterday at $71.91 per barrel.  It is down a bit this morning with it now trading at $71.77 per barrel.  Our dollar had a high of $0.798 US and low of $0.794 US both before noon yesterday.  It has traded within that range since that time with it currently valued this morning at $0.795 US.
 
Volatility continues in our markets.  The swing in soybean prices is a prime example of this.  They closed negative yesterday however they did close 20 cents off the low for the day.  There was not really anything negative for the market to trade on but it was just a negative day of trading.  The only positive on the day was that the market bounced back to close well off the low of the day.  Remember the market does what the market wants to do.  With the tight soybean supplies in the US it seems that the market will overreact on both the up and down sides when something changes and then we have days like yesterday that it just overreacts to no news. 
 
On the corn front prices in China continue to slip with them once again hitting a new low for this year.  Growing conditions have been generally good in China for this year’s crop however some reports of excess rain and flooding have come forward this week for a small portion of their corn growing region.  As we have noted before it will be interesting to see if corn purchases are slowed this year from China due to their strong crop.  We also need to remember that they continue to have some localised outbreaks of African Swine Flu and this could also affect corn demand.
 
Friday’s thought: If outside validation is your only source of nourishment, you will be hungry for the rest of your life!