News

Iowa crop concerns offset by good crops elsewhere

The latest drought monitor shows conditions have worsened in Iowa over the past week. A big section of central Iowa has moved from D2-Severe Drought to D3-Extreme Drought.

But market analyst Darin Newsom says concerns about Iowa’s crops are being offset by positive crop reports from other states.

“By and large, except for that area, crop conditions look to be pretty good,” Newsom says. “It’s really building up hopes—hopes or fears, I don’t know which word works better—for some big yield numbers when we finally see the combines start to roll.”

Although bullish news is hard to find, Newsom says there are some indications the corn and soybean markets are becoming oversold.

“If we take supply and demand out of it and we just look at charts, and we just take the titles off, the argument could be made that both markets are getting ready to possibly move higher—possibly change their trends,” he says. “The catch is that, particularly in grains, you can’t take supply and demand out of the equation.”

And Newsom says demand is a major concern.