Higher Close In Grains | Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025

At the close, May corn was up 2¢ at $5.06 per bushel.

March soybeans increased 2¼¢ at $10.30 per bushel.

Don Roose, President of U.S. Commodities, said the corn market continues to be in a 12¢ trading range at the expected top, but grain looks to be on hold today. “The soybean [is] technically breaking down as harvest is starting to ramp up in Brazil. Northern Mato Grosso, before long, is going to have almost a billion bushels that’s going to be harvested…. So, I think it’s the weight of the South American harvest that’s pressuring the market.”

Roose pointed to the February World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report released by USDA. “[It] was a dull report; It did give us a lower trade out of China on corn and wheat, but we did get Conab out today, and basically they upped the production on the corn, [so there’s] a little bit of an anchor there.”

Conab, Brazil’s Agricultural Agency, continued to report a record soybean crop as weather keeps improving, Roose added.

March wheat contracts closed higher. CBOT wheat was up 3½¢ at $5.77¾ per bushel. KC wheat was 6¾¢ higher at $5.98¼ per bushel. Minneapolis wheat was 2¢ stronger at $6.16¾ per bushel.

April live cattle closed 80¢ higher at $196.52 per hundredweight (cwt). March feeder cattle were $3.00 up at $267.97 per cwt. April lean hogs dropped $1.22 at $93.10 per cwt.

Just before 3:00 p.m. CT, March crude oil was 7¢ higher at $71.44 per barrel.

March S&P 500 futures were up 58 points and Dow futures increased 381 points.

Published: 3:06 p.m.

Grains Slightly Higher: 9:01 a.m. CT

Starting off the Thursday trade, just after 9:00 a.m. CT, May corn was up half a penny at $5.04½ per bushel.

March soybeans increased 1¼¢ at $10.29 per bushel.

“The weekly exports were very solid in corn, at the top side of the [expected] range,” said Jamey Kohake, Senior Risk Manager with Pinion, referencing the weekly U.S. Export Sales report from USDA.

Grain production outside of the U.S. is influencing the market today, he added, as Brazil’s second corn crop is in the process of being planted but is a little behind average pace.

“Weekly bean exports were very sluggish,” Kohake said. “Our export window is closing very fast as more of the harvest is coming online down in Brazil. Weather looks good; we’re probably going to be at least a quarter, if not a third, done at the end of this week down there.”

March wheat contracts started the day in the green. CBOT wheat was up 2¾¢ at $5.77 per bushel. KC wheat was 7¢ higher at $5.98½ per bushel. Minneapolis wheat was 3¼¢ stronger at $6.18 per bushel.

April live cattle started the day down 2¢ at $195.70 per hundredweight (cwt). March feeder cattle were 22¢ up at $265.20 per cwt. April lean hogs saw a 40¢ decline at $93.92 per cwt.

March crude oil was 25¢ lower at $71.12 per barrel.

March S&P 500 futures and Dow futures were up 17 points and 80 points, respectively.

Published: 9:01 a.m.