This followed a report on Thursday that showed US farmers had planted more corn than analysts had expected and that stocks of the grain were higher than forecast across the US.
Corn futures fell more than 6pc on Friday, bringing the fall since a US report was issued to about 10pc.
On Thursday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that, despite a cold and wet spring, farmers managed to plant 92.28m acres of corn, which is the second-largest crop since World War Two.
Thursday\’s report also revealed that the country had stockpiles of corn amounting to 3.67bn bushels, 11pc above expectations.
Corn futures rose a lot over the winter.
As a result, farmers planted lots of corn in the spring.
So, when the harvest comes in there will be lots of corn and prices for physical corn will be lower than they would have been without the extra planting: and without the speculation that led to the extra planting.
See, speculation works!
Now, if only we can convince the lefties of this……
Do you mean the corn futures price rose relative to the spot price over winter?
“Now, if only we can convince the lefties of this……”
More likely, expect calls for windfall taxes on farmers’ profits……..
Seems to me there’s a fairly direct relationship between corn planted and seed corn purchased, so why is this a surprise? What are the ‘analysts’ basing their forecasts on, chicken entrails?
Midwesstern farmers managed ot plant it, but very late and into much wetter fields than recommended. Yields may be lower than expected. The harvest will be later than normally seen. A wet fall and/or an early frost could cause further problems. A little early yet to start counting windfalls.
[…] My word, look – speculation works – Tim Worstall: This followed a report on Thursday that showed US farmers had planted more corn than analysts had expected and that stocks of the grain were higher than forecast across the US. […]