Grains in the red ahead of WASDE. Monday, August 12, 2024

December corn is down 2¼¢ this morning.

November soybeans are down 8¼¢.

September wheat contracts are also in the red. CBOT wheat is down 14½¢. KC wheat is down 13½¢. Minneapolis wheat is down 10¼¢.

This morning, USDA announced unknown destinations are buying 165,000 metric tons of corn for the 2024/2025 marketing year. The agency also announced unknown destinations are buying 300,000 metric tons of soybeans — 100,000 metric tons for 2023/2024 and 200,000 metric tons for 2024/2025.

At 11 a.m. CT today, USDA is expected to release the August World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report.

“It’s very unusual for the August report to mark the bottom of a market, but it can happen,” says Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX.

“The bottom line is that the markets typically do not post their harvest lows until the market is confident that it has a handle on the maximum potential size of the corn and soybean crops…. The expectations are that we will see USDA bump its yield projections higher later today. That tends to lead to a ‘big crops get bigger’ mentality among traders, raising the potential question of, ‘how big will they get?’

“Thus far, August weather to date combined with forecasts for the rest of the month tends to support further growth in yield potential for the September report. As such, traders will likely need to see the September report, and to start seeing harvest results, before [they] will be able to get a handle on the potential size of this year’s crops.”

The weekly USDA Crop Progress report is also expected at 3 p.m. CT today, which includes crop condition ratings for corn and soybeans.

“I am watching U.S. corn and soybean crop ratings stay very high and U.S. crop yield projections move higher,” says Al Kluis, managing director of Kluis Commodity Advisors. “One respected analyst on Friday said he thought the corn yield could reach up to 183 bushels per acre and soybean yields at 53 or higher.”

October live cattle are down 48¢ this morning. September feeder cattle are down 65¢. October lean hogs are down 33¢.

September crude oil is up $1.20.

The U.S. Dollar Index September contract is up to 103.03.

September S&P 500 futures are down 12 points. September Dow futures are down 179 points.

Tags: corn, soybeans, wheat, futures, live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs