Noon Market Update

A firmer grain trade this Thursday noon hour. The week started out in a slide on Tuesday, as there's hope for continuation of some positive peace talks with Iran that had the grain trade on the defensive, but we find more business every time we slide, and that support value for the spot corn contract in the 450 continues to hold. Same thing can be said for soybeans, $11.80 on the spot contract holds and supports the market. And now the export sales data we normally would see on a Thursday, it's not going to be revealed until Friday morning, because the Memorial Day holiday, but as anticipated, we're going to see some decent numbers again, because it's the sales through last week ahead of the three day weekend. The wheat trade is mixed. We have the corn that we trade in Kansas City a little softer today as the impending harvest of what is going to be a minimal crop, but the prices have slid from elevated levels of $7.50 on the spot contract. Recall, there were just $5.20 back in March. So she's made a move and it's correcting some of that, but the reason why Chicago wheat is stronger than Kansas today is tied to the fact that there's rumors circulating that China may lower its tariffs from the agreed summit that they had had back in May that they would be buying US grain. In order to do that, their private companies need to have the tariffs out of the way, so the thought is within a week here, as we get into the first part of June, we might see those tariffs eliminated on corn, soybeans, and wheat, and if the Chinese buy wheat, it's the Chicago soft red winter wheat variety that they would buy that. That's why that spread action is occurring today. So, for more information, just go to our website, HeartlandInvest.com and subscribe to our newsletter.