Corn steadies under $4.50 while soybeans climb on new export business

December corn eased 1½ cents to trade at $4.49¾ a bushel in early Friday trading. Total Farm Marketing’s senior market advisor Naomi Blohm observed that the contract stayed in oversold territory, still hunting for a technical floor, having flirted with a bullish reversal pattern in back-to-back sessions.

Meanwhile, January soybeans climbed 3¾ cents to reach $12.38½ a bushel. According to the USDA, undisclosed foreign buyers booked purchases of 165,150 metric tons of soybeans, plus an additional 132,000-ton order, both earmarked for the 2026/2027 marketing year.

Wheat markets showed divergent moves. December CBOT wheat dipped fractionally to $6.03½ a bushel, and the Kansas City December contract slid a similar amount to $6.44¾. Minneapolis December wheat bucked the trend, rising a penny to $6.25½.

Livestock futures retreated broadly: January feeder cattle dropped $5.63 to settle at $336.33 per hundredweight, and December live cattle shed $2.83 to reach $223.48. December lean hogs managed a modest 5-cent gain to $59.88.

In other markets, December crude oil climbed $1.85 to $103.85 a barrel, while the greenback weakened, with the December U.S. Dollar Index contract falling to 101.79. Stock indexes also retreated — the S&P 500 lost nearly 100 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed close to 200 points by mid-morning.

For commodity watchers, the new soybean export sales combined with a softer dollar lend support to grain demand, even as declines across equities and cattle futures signal a wider risk-averse mood pressing on agricultural markets.

Source: Successful Farming