Special Market Update

As global markets struggle to quantify and record the ever-changing data that surrounds COVID-19, it was clear today that investors feel more comfortable than they have in weeks as equity markets continue to climb back to pre “shelter-in-place” levels. That positive seemed to leak into the commodity space coupled with some export sales of soybeans to China and encouraged old crop beans to finish the day up 14 cents which seems to have helped leveled corn prices as well.

Crop progress is expected to be roughly 90% planted corn and 69% for beans, this has been a needed improvement over planting pace last year. As planting wraps up, focus will shift toward weather as the funds continue to commit to a short position in corn. This generally adds to market volatility but at this point, there is little to no concern for US weather as a whole. We continue to recommend a balanced and disciplined approach to marketing grain in this environment, open orders above the market in both HTA’s and averaging products help the producer customer to lock in better values for their crop as this market appears to be turning up from current levels.

The equity market is digesting unemployment data rather well, or at least for the time-being, it will be pivotal as states continue to open up more businesses and relax some of the quarantine guidelines, whether we see the follow through needed from the consumer in order to continue to support current levels. Data continues to be a mixed bag across the country from state to state on new cases, but the optimism represented by today’s price action should not be taken lightly as Americans continue to get back to work. As always, this can change rather quickly, and the pandemic will be a very important driver over the next two weeks following the holiday weekend. We are cautiously optimistic that we will continue to see an increase in consumer demand for goods, services, and typical driving patterns as we head into the summer season, which should in turn drive a slow and stable recovery.