By Kirk Maltais
--Soybeans for January delivery rose 1.3%, to $9.75 1/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, mitigating losses of the past week as traders opted to turn long and finish the week positive.
--Corn for March delivery rose 1.2%, to $4.46 a bushel.
--Wheat for March delivery fell 0.1%, to $5.32 3/4 a bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
Making Their Last Touches: Upward movement in CBOT grain futures looked to, in part, stem from traders opting for short-covering, taking profits there after recent selling put futures at lows. Thursday's close of $9.52 a bushel and $5.33 a bushel, for soybeans and wheat respectively, found lows last seen in August 2020. Corn has been gradually trending up from a multi-year low set last August. "Overall fund liquidation pressure that has weighed on a host of commodity and financial markets has been relieved at the end of the week," said AgResource in a note.
Dry Fields: What also supported corn and soybeans in Friday's session is a drier forecast for crops in Argentina, said Karl Setzer of Consus Ag Consulting. Some rain came through the country this week, but heading into next week things look dry, agricultural firm DTN said. "Precipitation will be spotty and areas are going to be missed, especially in the southeast, and that could lead to other dry areas developing," DTN said.
INSIGHT
By Extension: CBOT soybeans pressed higher Friday, seemingly ignoring the 1.2% downturn seen in soyoil futures. Pressure on soyoil stemmed from drama around the potential government shutdown, with provisions that were made supporting year-round allowance of E15--gasoline mixed with 15% ethanol, which has been made available over the summer during the Biden Administration--being removed from the Trump-backed bill that was also shot down. "Pulling E15 out of the bill makes absolutely no sense and is an insult to America's farmers and renewable fuel producers," said Geoff Cooper of the Renewable Fuels Association.
Budget Brawl: The political sparring over keeping the government open is a debate that touches farmers, with U.S. agriculture pushing hard for any deal to include an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill that was allowed to expire in September. While a new bill is preferable, farmers will take any help they can get, says Betty Resnick of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Farmers need the bill updated for 2025, with some of the aid calculations last revisited in 2014, says Resnick in a note. "Programs carefully designed to provide just enough help in 2014 provide almost no help in 2024," she says. The economics surrounding what to plant to make acres profitable will likely influence what gets planted this spring.
AHEAD
--The USDA will release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Monday.
--The USDA will release its monthly Cold Storage report at 3 p.m. ET Monday.
--The USDA will release its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report at 3 p.m. ET Monday.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-20-24 1548ET