Your Pro Farmer newsletter (January 6, 2024) is now available

The new year kicked off where 2023 ended... with funds remaining sellers of most ag commodities. It would likely take a significant bullish event for managed money accounts to switch from sellers to buyers on a broad scale. But with funds nearly all on the short side of the ag markets, some selective buying seems likely in early 2024. Soybean traders ignored declining crop estimates in Brazil as Argentina will see a major rebound in production after last year’s historic drought and the total South American soybean crop is expected to rise nearly 10%. Some market-moving news could come Jan. 12 when USDA releases a barrage of data. Much of the focus is typically on USDA’s “final” crop estimates for corn and soybeans. But Dec. 1 grain stocks have a history of providing market-moving surprises, especially for corn. Traders will also get winter wheat seedings, along with global production forecasts and updates to the U.S. and global balance sheets. In this week’s News page 4 feature, we look at some bigger-picture issues that could impact agriculture this year and beyond. We cover all of these items and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.