Today’s Drought Monitor map (see below) reflects the worsening moisture conditions across the heart of the U.S. production belt.
Worse, the heat is about to intensify and thus quickly deepen the root level water deficit. Already 57 percent of the corn and 51 percent of the soybeans are in drought. Some have compared the map to June of 2012, a similarly early drought year that saw corn production fall by 12.5 percent. Soybeans are less impacted by early season dryness but in 2012 production fell by 2.3 percent. The market reacted today by larding up on weather premium. Corn and soybean prices are now at two- and one-month highs, respectively. USDA’s export sales report was better overall than a week earlier. Whea...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
Key Takeaways: The Middle East and North Africa's arid climate and limited water resources have created a structural dependence on imported wheat. Government wheat tenders in major importing countries serve as important benchmarks for global trade, providing insight into exporter competitivene...
