Weekly Cash Comments

Grain basis was mostly stable this week with both corn and soybeans unchanged for the week across the U.S.

Weather was the big concern this week as Tropical Storm Bill hit Texas and Oklahoma and made its way into the Ohio Valley by late in the week. Wet conditions are leading to not only planting problems, but shipping delays along the IL & MS River as swollen rivers are shutting down some stretches for barge traffic. In FOB market, export premiums were firmer on Thursday because of high water levels on Illinois and Mississippi rivers. FOB soybean basis offers for July were offered at 105 cents over CBOT July on Thursday, up 10c from Wednesday.

End users were mostly quiet this week with little directional movement for either corn or soybean plants. The sharp rally in soybean futures helped increase some farmer selling of old-crop which caused basis levels at soy plants to be weaker as a result. In ethanol, production levels were off this week by 12,000 barrels per day to 980,000 barrels. Basis levels in the Western Cornbelt tended to be weaker for corn end users this week.

—Cody Bills