Grains starting week in the red. Monday, December 18, 2023

March corn is currently down 3½¢.

January soybeans are down 2½¢.

CBOT wheat is down 7¼¢. KC wheat is down 9¼¢. Minneapolis wheat is down 8¢.

“Rains are moving forward in the forecast for Center-West Brazil, raising hopes of soaking rains starting as early as Wednesday of this week,” says Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for StoneX. “We’ve seen this before, and the rains disappointed. This is a critical time for soybean development in Center-West Brazil, making it a pivotal time for the crop. Commodity Weather Group (CWG) calls for 0.50 to 1.5”, locally 5” with 55% coverage focused on some of the driest areas of Brazil’s soybean belt over the next five days, with even more rain in the 6 to 10-day outlook. Even so, CWG still expects stress to linger over 30% of the belt over the next two weeks. That would suggest continuation of the pattern that we’ve seen for much of the growing season.”

Live cattle are up 55¢. Lean hogs are up 23¢. Feeder cattle are up $2.68.

Crude oil is up $2.05.

S&P 500 futures are up 23 points. Dow futures are up 33 points.

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