Latest News From Markets

Ethanol plants throughout the country are shutting its doors or limiting hours. It’s partly due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Yet, there are other factors at play which include less demand for ethanol and gasoline.

Let’s face it, trying to forecast the future just became much, much harder. Yet, taking the long view at agriculture can provide some guidance.

The CME Group said the Chicago trading floor closed after business hours Friday in response to the virus.

COVID-19 took a big bite out of commodity prices this week, but could that trend continue? Some analysts fear prices will get even worse before things start to turn around.

Many Chinese farmers are shopping online for vital supplies as the spring planting season gets under way and the coronavirus outbreak disrupts traditional supply chains.

Some ethanol producers worldwide said demand is up for their products due to customers stockpiling hand sanitizer - which can be made using the biofuel - as the coronavirus outbreak worsens.

Today Bayer announced it will close its Creve Coeur, St. Louis site after learning an employee is under investigation for coronavirus infection.

Coronavirus continues to be a black swan hitting the markets, with both the stock market and commodity market getting hit hard on Monday. Analysts warn more downside risk could be ahead.

It’s either going to be a boom fourth quarter for U.S. farmers, or that extra $12.5 billion in American agriculture purchases promised by China for this year isn’t happening.

Clinton Griffiths, Farm Journal editor and AgDay Host, has more with Bob Utterback in this analysis clip about whether to hold grain when bills are due.

One of the world’s largest supply chains is opening a case-ready beef plant and establishing its own angus supply chain. CoBank recently released a report about the plant.

Tuesday’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) was not a market mover, but it did offer a first look at how USDA views impact of the Phase 1 trade deal with China.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled that a renewed transatlantic trade truce will require more ambitious European Union efforts to ease imports of American foods.

Grain storage can be a tool, but storing too long can be a major fault in grain marketing. University of Minnesota economist talks about the biggest grain marketing mistakes he sees made by farmers.

Chinese buyers have booked only modest amounts of U.S. soybeans, pork and cotton, according to government data.

As the market starts to transition its focus to 2020 production, U.S. farmers may be poised to plant 95 million acres of corn. What would that mean for the markets? Chip Nellinger weighs in.

Two former officers at a northwest Iowa agriculture cooperative have pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges.

Cargill Inc. welcomes the first phase of a U.S.-China trade agreement but cautions that exports of some agricultural goods have yet to resume and tariffs are still in place.

Donald Trump’s trade deal may have been short on details about Chinese agriculture purchases, but one thing seems clear: Brazil’s two-year, non-stop soybean bonanza will likely come to an end.

The Phase One trade agreement with China comes with a big promise to purchase close to $40 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products over the next two years. Does this mean the trade war is over? Economists weigh in.

USDA released a slew of reports of Friday, initially sending markets lower.

As corn exports continue to disappoint, even if USDA lowers yield, analysts say USDA is likely to reduce export forecasts in Friday's reports.

2020 is full of unknowns when it comes to the markets, but both market analysts and Washington watchers agree on one thing: the political environment will impact the markets in 2020.

Louis Dreyfus Co. is cutting jobs as the embattled agricultural commodities trader tightens its belt amid low profits, according to people familiar with the matter.

Here are just a few of the forces pushing and pulling the U.S. farmland market.

There's talk China maybe buying some U.S. ethanol soon. It could be part of the new Phase One Trade agreement. Bloomberg reporting sources tell them Beijing plans to start buying ethanol by lifting tariffs on the fuel.

On another trade front, the U.S. and Mexico appear to have resolved an eleventh-hour labor dispute.

WASDE bullish for wheat and cotton.

It’s crunch time in Washington D.C. to get the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) passed in 2019, with many agricultural groups and organizations losing patience. So, what does the deal do for agriculture?

For the past two years, wheat acres have dipped to a 100-year low. For 2020, acres could challenge the 110-year low.

The historically late harvest is causing more problems and not just for farmers but livestock producers. AgDay National Reporter Betsy Jibben has more on the final stop on the I-80 Harvest Tour.

People trying to get the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report for November were met with frustration Friday.

The I-80 Harvest Tour takes us to Indiana this week. It's where less than half the corn crop has been harvested. Some of that crop wasn't planted until after the start of June.

Farmers are trying at harvesting as fast as they can before the snow arrives. There is snow in the forecast for many places in the Midwest this week. Has damage already been done to the crop during the last freeze?

Farm Journal's Jim Wiesemeyer also reporting a decision on a possible second installment will be made by White House officials, including President Trump. The second installment decision is expected next month.

What are farmers to make of the recent announcement about biofuels, and is a trade deal with China just talk?

Price discovery has changed materially. This has given rise to questioning even the CME and the futures industry.

Questions remain about the Phase 1 trade agreement between the United States and China. "The Wall Street Journal" reports uncertainty surrounds China's commitment to buy up to $50 billion of U.S. ag. products.

In advance of Thursday’s USDA reports, Indigo Ag released its final corn and soybean production forecast for the season.

The maturity of the U.S. corn crop is running at its slowest pace since 2009. For soybeans dropping leaves, it's the slowest since 1996. That's according to Crop Progress report of the September 22 week.

The USDA announced another flash sale of soybeans to China on Friday.

W2 Fuel, a southeast Iowa biodiesel plant, has shut down in response to the unclear future for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). The Crawfordsville, Iowa plant produced 10 million gallons of biodiesel annually.

President Donald Trump and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe met in New York on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing negotiations of the U.S.-Japan Free Trade Agreement

This week Siouxland Energy Cooperative, in Sioux Center, Iowa, announced it will idle ethanol production. The company is pointing the finger at SREs recently provided to oil refineries by the Trump administration.

The reports held both good news and bad news, says Jerry Gulke president of the Gulke Group.

POET officials say the process to idle the plant will take several weeks, after which the plant will cease processing of over 30 million bushels of corn annually.

Lance Honig, crops branch chief of USDA National Ag Statistics Service, hosted #statchat on Monday to help clear up some questions. 

"In a report that was supposed to answer all the questions, it gave us a lot more questions than answers,” says Jerry Gulke, president of Gulke Group.

Farmers should expect the trend of lower to negative farm returns to continue in 2019, despite recent positive market momentum.

10 years of seed industry mergers, acquisitions and reshuffling.