Grain Comments: 10-29-2026

Good morning.

Ag trade has been mixed to lower again through the overnight hours, with the grain markets inside of the ranges seen yesterday and most of the soy complex extending losses on the week amid what continues to be a stagnant news environment. The Black Sea developments have been new this week and have introduced a new measure of optimism regarding the overall situation, but otherwise, the daily market environment has been little changed in recent days. Managed money is seemingly close to where they want to be in terms of ag length going into the end of the year and it’s now wait-and-see time to gauge what crops in South America are going to look like, what final US yields are going to look like, and what Chinese demand is going to look like.

Corn futures to start Thursday are trading unhanged to a penny lower, soybean futures are trading 5-8 cents lower, and the Chicago wheat market is trading unchanged to a penny higher.

This morning’s weekly export sales report for the week ending October 22nd is expected to show corn sales in the week between 800k-1.6 mil MTs, soybean sales between 1.8-3.0 mil MTs, and wheat sales between 200k-500k MTs. The report is due out at 7:30am central time.

Touched on it yesterday afternoon, but the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday expectedly left interest rates unchanged in the current 3.75%-4% range. The decision was made following a 10-2 vote, with two regional governors supporting a quarter-point rate increase amid ongoing inflationary risks. The CME’s FedWatch tool now shows a better than 85% chance that interest rates are increased at the Fed’s next FOMC meeting in December.

Bloomberg reported overnight that the first grain vessel has exited the Sea of Azov under new Russian permitting, though there were no details as to its destination or cargo.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said this week that increased diesel exports out of the Arabian Gulf along with a likely resumption of Chinese exports could significantly lower retail diesel prices, though there weren’t a lot of additional details given.

In other energy news, the White House also said on Wednesday that its oil agreement with Venezuela would deliver around 65 million barrels, but analysts say that figure needs clarification on units and timeframe before being treated as actual additional supply.

Parts of the western Corn Belt see light thunderstorm potential this evening and into the early morning hours on Friday, but the storms don’t look to be overly potent from a moisture standpoint. Models have totals into Saturday morning only reaching half an inch to an inch or so and also expect coverage to be rather spotty.

Focus then remains on the larger low-pressure system that’s still expected to impact on the heart of the country in the middle of next week, with models this morning seeing rainfall potential of 2-5″ for an area stretching from the Gulf to the Great Lakes. Drier weather is in the forecast again than after this, but next week looks to be a wetter one for most of the Midwest and Corn Belt.

Have a great day.