Corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat were up for the week.

On Wednesday the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25%. The change was the 10th
increase in interest rates in 14 months. The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates to reduce the annual inflation rate to closer to its target of around 2%. Annualized monthly inflation peaked at 9.06% in June 2022 and has since declined to the most recent estimate of 4.98% on March 31, 2023. The bank prime lending rate is now at 8.25%, up 5% compared to March 15, 2022. The increase in interest rates has numerous implications for agricultural producers – increased interest expense on operating capital, reduced access to credit, and higher capital recovery rates on medium-to-long term capital investments (machinery, livestock, land etc.). Continue reading at Tennessee Market Highlights.

Corn, soybeans, and wheat were down; cotton was up last week.

The December corn futures contract compared to the previous 10 years, from the start of January to the end of April, experienced its largest decline in 2023. The December 2023 contract decreased 79 cents – opening the year at $6.06 ¾ and closing April at $5.27 ¾. The next largest decline was 67 ¼ cents in 2020 when prices experienced rapid declines, due to the on set of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022 had the largest gain in the previous 10 years with prices rising a remarkable $2.03 ¾ ($5.47 ½ to $7.51 ¼), due primarily to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Volatility has been a feature in corn markets over the past three growing seasons and is likely to continue in 2023. There remains a large amount of uncertainty for the 2023 crop, however with greater acreage in Brazil and the U.S. expected the bias in corn markets is for further price weakness, in the absence of a weather-related production disruption.