The Daily Board: Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Grains and crude gave back ground today as traders booked profits after a multi-year run, while natural gas was the outlier, spiking on early heating-demand and supply chatter.
The Board
Grains & Oilseeds
🌽 Corn · Dec — 536¾ · −6¼ · −1.15% 🔴⬇️
🫘 Beans · Nov — 1325½ · −2½ · −0.19% 🔴⬇️
🥩 Meal · Dec — 370.70 · +2.30 · +0.62% 🟢⬆️
🧴 Oil · Dec — 67.92 · −0.93 · −1.35% 🔴⬇️
🌾 SRW · Dec — 717¼ · −9½ · −1.31% 🔴⬇️
🌾 HRW · Dec — 781¼ · −13¼ · −1.67% 🔴⬇️
🌾 HRS · Dec — 736¼ · −10 · −1.34% 🔴⬇️
🥣 Oats · Dec — 414½ · −1¾ · −0.42% 🔴⬇️
Prairie Crops
🌻 Canola · Nov — C$824.30 · −C$10.90 · −1.31% 🔴⬇️
🐮 Barley · Lethbridge cash (wk) — ~C$300/tonne
Energy
🛢️ WTI · Nov — 90.52 · −1.85 · −2.00% 🔴⬇️
🔥 NatGas · Nov — 3.117 · +0.124 · +4.14% 🟢⬆️
Metals
🥇 Gold · Dec — 4,376.4 · −7.5 · −0.17% 🔴⬇️
🥈 Silver · Dec — 66.530 · +0.115 · +0.17% 🟢⬆️
The Read
🌽 Corn — 536¾, −6¼ (−1.15%) 🔴⬇️
December corn backed off after touching its highest level since mid-2023, as traders booked profits near technically overbought territory.
US export inspections jumped 40% year over year last week, and USDA still projects the largest global corn deficit in three decades for 2026/27 — the bullish backdrop hasn't gone anywhere.
So what: a pullback from three-year highs is still a strong bin price; don't mistake profit-taking for a trend change.
Watch: progress out of this week's Trump-Xi meeting on Chinese ag purchases, plus Thursday's export sales report.
🫘 Soybeans — 1325½, −2½ (−0.19%) 🔴⬇️
Beans held almost dead flat, consolidating just off three-year highs after China cleared the halfway mark on its 25-million-tonne purchase commitment.
Heavy Midwest rain is slowing the harvest, providing some underlying support even as the market pauses.
So what: basis holders have breathing room here — the Chinese demand story hasn't cracked; it's just catching its breath.
Watch: any agricultural trade headlines out of the Trump-Xi meeting this week.
🥩 Soybean Meal — 370.70, +2.30 (+0.62%) 🟢⬆️
Meal bucked the soft complex, edging higher as crush (the margin a processor earns turning beans into meal and oil) demand stayed firm even with beans soft.
Protein-feed demand for livestock rations continues to underpin meal even as the broader soy complex loses momentum.
So what: feedlots and hog operations are still paying up for protein — budget rations accordingly.
Watch: weekly crush data for signs the meal/oil split keeps favouring meal.
🧴 Soybean Oil — 67.92, −0.93 (−1.35%) 🔴⬇️
Oil led the soy complex lower, pulled down by crude's 2% slide — its tightest correlation is to the energy complex via biofuel demand.
The meal/oil product split flipped further toward meal today, a signal crush margins are being carried by the protein side, not the fat side.
So what: if you're pricing biofuel-linked contracts, oil is riding crude's coattails more than soy fundamentals right now.
Watch: whether crude's slide extends and drags oil further, or whether biofuel policy news offers a floor.