The Daily Board — July 29, 2026
Today's close, same-day brief.
Energy and metals swung hard on renewed Iran hostilities and a Fed rate hold, while grains and canola mostly slid on crop-condition and technical selling of their own.
The Board
Grains & Oilseeds
🌽 Corn · Dec — 471¾ · −8¾ · −1.82% 🔴⬇️
🫘 Beans · Nov — 1192¾ · −27¼ · −2.23% 🔴⬇️
🥣 Meal · Dec — 323.50 · −4.30 · −1.31% 🔴⬇️
🛢️ Oil · Dec — 67.62 · −1.31 · −1.90% 🔴⬇️
🌾 SRW · Sep — 660¾ · −1¾ · −0.26% 🔴⬇️
🌾 HRW · Sep — 725½ · −¾ · −0.10% 🔴⬇️
🌾 HRS · Sep — 7.0500 · +0.0250 · +0.36% 🟢⬆️
🌰 Oats · Dec — 327 · −2¼ · −0.68% 🔴⬇️
Prairie Crops
🥬 Canola · Nov — C$771.20 · −C$11.70 · −1.49% 🔴⬇️
🐮 Barley · wkly — C$5.44–6.77/bu · unch. (wk of Jul 22) · ➖
Energy
🛢️ WTI · Aug — 84.46 · +5.20 · +6.56% 🟢⬆️
🔥 NatGas · Aug — 2.722 · +0.021 · +0.78% 🟢⬆️
Metals
🥇 Gold · Aug — 4,036.30 · −2.40 · −0.06% 🔴⬇️
🥈 Silver · Sep — 58.089 · +0.560 · +0.97% 🟢⬆️
The Read
🌽 Corn — 471¾, −8¾ (−1.82%) 🔴⬇️ $CORN ( ▲ 0.17% )
USDA's crop progress report knocked corn's good-to-excellent rating down 4 points to 63% on Midwest heat — an expected confirmation, not a surprise, but funds sold it anyway.
Ethanol output actually firmed to 330 million gallons, running ahead of the pace USDA needs to hit its usage forecast for the first time in 15 weeks.
Argentina keeps chipping at U.S. export share: first-half corn shipments hit 19.1 mmt, up sharply year over year.
So what: cheaper corn takes a little edge off feedlot rations even as diesel just got pricier on the oil spike — close to a wash for cattle feeders today.
Watch: Thursday's export sales (25–60 mil bu combined) and whether forecast rain actually shows up to back off the heat-stress story.
🫘 Soybeans — 1192¾, −27¼ (−2.23%) 🔴⬇️ $SOYB ( ▲ 0.06% )
Beans gave back more than corn even on a similar crop story (good-to-excellent slipped 3 points to 63%) — favourable finishing-weather forecasts did the real damage.
China's Sinograin is set to auction off 500,000 tonnes of reserve beans Friday, freeing bin space for incoming U.S. cargoes — a demand green shoot the market shrugged off today.
Funds are still long roughly 320,000 contracts across the complex, well off this spring's record near 502,000 — plenty of room left to unwind if sentiment sours further.
So what: a 27-cent drop on new-crop bushels stings on paper, but the China auction is the kind of headline that can flip this market fast.
Watch: Friday's Sinograin auction results, and whether China actually books fresh U.S. cargoes behind it.