US Midwest spot corn basis was mostly steady to firm on Friday amid slow country movement, but soybean basis was steady to weaker as increased farmer selling over the past week pressured bids, grain dealers said. Dealers reported some light soybean sales earlier in the day when a rally in futures markets lifted cash prices, but volumes were thin overall.
Corn sales were slow, they added. Cash prices were near some producers' target selling prices so several dealers predicted an increase in farmer selling next week. Farmers have indicated they would be interested in selling corn at $4 or $4.50 a bushel cash prices and soybeans at around $10 a bushel, dealers said. Also, some farmers in recent weeks had been delaying selling grain until the new year for tax reasons.
Soybean basis fell by 15 cents a bushel at one Iowa processor following the recent wave of sales. An Indiana elevator lowered soy basis by 8 cents. Grain elevators and processors continued to roll their soybean basis bids to the CBOT March contract from January.
At the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, grain futures settled higher in thin holiday week volumes while soybean futures ended lower. Trading was choppy on both sides of previous levels. March corn futures ended up 5-1/4 cents at $4.12-1/4 a bushel. January soybeans fell 2-1/4 cents to $9.70 a bushel and March fell 3 cents to $9.77.
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