Corn, wheat, and soybean futures all posted moderate gains on Wednesday amid renewed weakness in the American dollar.
The greenback fell back toward three-year lows on tariff jitters, particularly amid an order from U.S. President Donald Trump to investigate new tariffs on critical mineral imports. Corn was further bolstered by wet weather moving into parts of the Midwest this weekend. Southern and eastern production areas are expected to be the most affected by the showers. On the other hand, corn planting in parts of Illinois and Iowa has been moving at a breakneck pace this week, with reports that some farmers in Iowa are already nearly finished. May corn was up 3 cents at $4.84 ¼, and December added 2 ½ cents to $4.66 ¾.
Soybeans drew additional support from reports today that China would be open to trade negotiations with the US. "It's raising optimism that maybe trade negotiations can start sooner rather than later," Randy Place, an analyst at Hightower Report, told Reuters. May beans were up 2 ¾ cents to $10.38 ¾, and November gained 4 ½ cents to $10.34 ¼.
For wheat, the rain expected this weekend is considered both positive and negative. Hard Red Winter crops in the southern Plains could use the moisture – although it looks like most of Kansas may miss out – but some Soft Red crops in the eastern Midwest are getting too much. May Chicago wheat was up 5 ¾ cents at $5.47 ¾, May Kansas City gained a nickel to $5.58, and May Minneapolis was 2 ½ cents higher at $6.03 ¾.
