Good morning!

There were portions of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin that got some nice rains last night – and this knocked our markets lower in the early morning hours.  Since then, both corn and soybeans recovered to trade higher but are now chopping around lower.

The USDA released its weekly export sales report this morning, corn numbers came in a little below expectations while soybeans were above guesses.  At first glance, this looks bearish to corn – but it is important to note that we are still exporting old crop corn (not much, but it is happening), long term this could mean we have additional rationing to do. 

The cash markets are still strong for soybeans, there are huge crush margins domestically and strong world demand out of the U.S. as we are the only game in town.  Cash corn markets are also strong.  Ethanol plants that are running look to be operating at a profit today, due to DDG prices (the high cost of soybean meal is driving them up) and corn oil prices being higher.  This also indicates we may need to work corn prices higher if demand needs slowed further. 

Outside markets are quiet, crude is around unchanged while the dollar and the dow are a touch higher.  It is interesting to note that average ground beef prices in the U.S. reached an all-time record high for the month of July at $3.085.  June was $3.007 – before June the average cost of 100% ground beef had never been above $3.00

Currently

Corn is steady to down 2 cents

Soybeans are down 5 to 7 cents

http://www.fccoop.com/markets/information.cfm