Week Ending 4/24/2026

Didion Weekly Market Recap

The corn markets saw another positive week of trading as demand remains strong and a slightly wetter week may slow planting progress. May and July corn ended the week 6 higher while December corn gained 7 cents on the week. The funds ended the week long 175,213 corn and long 182,573 soybean contracts.

Wet forecasts supported the corn market early in the week and then gave way to support from the wheat market. Wheat has had a couple strong weeks and is approaching recent highs due to the drought in the plains. If they continue to miss the rain we could see additional demand for corn in the west as a replacement for feed wheat later this summer.

July corn made its way back to $4.65 which is the midpoint of the last 2 months’ trading range. While I don’t expect the markets to trade significantly higher in old crop, it is impressive that we are back to these levels considering the carryout we are dealing with. For now it appears traders are going to add to their long positions until we see what happens in the middle east and how planting progress proceeds. The lack of farmer selling over the last couple weeks has helped the markets rally. If they were aggressively selling like we saw a month ago, the commercial elevators and end users would be putting on short hedges and negate the small rallies the fund traders have given us.

Corn planting progress came in at 11% complete as of last Sunday night (4/19/26) which was up from 5% last week and ahead of five-year average of 9%. Corn emergence was reported at 4%, which is up from 2% both last year and for the five-year average.

In my opinion, we do not have a story for delayed planting in the US at this point. There are some trying to pitch that idea, but it has not been a concern yet.  Monday’s crop progress report will be important to see what areas are starting to lag due to the recent rainfalls.  It may still not be a story that moves the market this week, but it will tell us where to watch to see if there will be a story in the later part of May.

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