Morning Markets: Corn: +0.50 old & +2 new.
Beans: -5.50 old & +0 new. Wheat: -3.25.
PLEASE JOIN US TOMORROW FOR OUR 2026 FOCUS MEETINGS!!
Tuesday, March 3rd at the Knights of Columbus in Lincoln with breakfast at 8:00am and meeting to follow.
Tuesday, March 3rd at the Monticello Community Building in Monticello with lunch at 12:00pm and meeting to follow.
Topflight Grain is offering Free PL on soybeans to all full-time locations except Maroa based on space availability good through August 31, 2026.
We are also offering Free PL on corn delivered to Pierson and Milmine based on space availability good through August 31, 2026.
MARKET SUMMARY:
Good morning. Grain markets are quietly mixed and largely on the back burner in terms of the broader commodity space to get the new week and month started this morning, as weekend happenings in the Middle East have stolen most all of the headlines in the last 48 hours or so and have produced wide-ranging price action in a bevy of outside markets. For the grain and soy space, corn futures are unchanged to 2 cents higher to start the morning, soybean futures are 2-6 cents lower, and the Chicago wheat market is 1-2 cents lower lower; all three markets took out last week's highs last night, but are back below these levels now as of this morning. Products are sharply mixed, with meal down around $7/ton and oil up around 1.60 cents/lb.
Crude Oil is up $5.27 at $72.29
US Dollar is up at $98.46
Dow futures are down 534 points at 48,466
WEATHER:
- As has been fairly well-advertised the past several days, Midwest weather looks set for an active week this week, as the models are in good agreement this morning on high pressure ridging in the southeast and good flow from the southwest allowing Gulf moisture to easily work its way into the mid-section of the country. Generally speaking, most of the Corn Belt will see near-daily chances at rainfall the next 10 days or so, with this morning's EU run predicting totals anywhere from a half inch to upwards of 6-7" in pockets between now and next Wednesday.
- Temperatures, meanwhile, have cooled a bit over the weekend into mid-month, but look to stay much warmer than average throughout the Midwest in the meantime.
- Argentina looks to see good moisture early this week throughout most all of the growing regions in the central part of the country, with additional rains then seen further to the north by the end of the week this week and into the weekend. For Brazil, the forecast shifted a little drier in the central part of the country the last couple days, which should aid harvest progress here, but has stayed wet further to the north. Extended forecasts are also wet, and have these drier southern and south-central regions again filling back in with moisture at the end of the week two forecast.
OTHER HEADLINES:
- The CME Group's delivery slate for Monday includes 448 contracts of March corn, 158 contracts of March beans, 102 contracts of meal, and 336 contracts of rough rice.
- Friday afternoon's CFTC commitment of traders report, with data for the week ending February 24th, showed managed money traders in the week were buyers of 13,548 contracts of corn (-13,867), buyers of 20,592 contracts of soybeans (+184,202) and buyers of 50,739 contracts of Chicago wheat (-17,297); this was the largest week of buying in the wheat on record and is the smallest the funds net-short has been since October of 2022. In the products, funds were buyers of 33,458 contracts of meal (+31,695) and buyers of 21,493 contracts of oil (+63,312).
- The USDA is scheduled to release monthly corn and soybean crush data for January this afternoon after the markets close. Traders see the reports showing soybean crush in the month at 226 million bushels, which would be down 1.5% from December but up 6.5% from January of 2025. Soybean oil stocks as of the end of the month are estimated at 2.418 bil lbs, which would be up 11% from December and up more than 33% from the same month last year. Corn for ethanol is estimated at 483 mil mil bu, which would be up a little more than 3% from last year.
- December corn futures averaged $4.62 during the month of February on a closing base, down 8 cents from last year's average. Meanwhile, November soybeans averaged a close of $11.09 during the month, which is up 55 cents from the average last year. The numbers would appear to leave soybeans with a better structural floor going into the new growing season from a revenue guarantee standpoint, which could potentially have an impact on the overall acreage mix, especially in fringe areas.
- In other oil news from the weekend, OPEC+ agreed to resume gradual production increases at their latest meeting on Sunday, saying output would be increased by 206,000 bbls/day beginning in April, which was a larger increase than the trade had anticipated last week but below the 440k+ bbls/day that was rumored following the strikes on Iran.
- In a joint release with the EPA and the USDA last week, the US Dept. of Health and Human Services announced it would be investing an additional $200 million into research around new and sustainable farming practices, which brings the total commitment to more than $1 billion. The administration has pushed efforts to reduce pesticide use by finding alternatives and has also made efforts to reduce reliance on chemical crop protection tools.
- Bird flu headlines are back making the rounds this morning, as officials from the state of Pennsylvania reported that infections wiped out more than 7.4 million birds during the month of February, a far bigger total than was expected. The state's governor said last week, "We are obviously in crisis mode," adding that the cases were occurring much earlier in the season than they had anticipated. While there has been no confirmation of this, officials believe unusually cold weather throughout winter was at least partially to blame for the number of cases.
EXPORT NEWS:
- N/A
Be careful!
Bailey Runyen
Grain Originator | Topflight Grain Coop.
101 N. Main St. | Cisco, IL 61830
Phone :: 217-669-2141
Email :: brunyen@tfgrain.com
