--- title: Daily comment for Thursday, August 20 description: Corn kept right on going today, pushing to new highs for the move and getting within a hair of the high we have been watching before easing back... image: https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/hubfs/CLAYTON%20POPE%20COMMODITIES%201-01.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/daily-comment-for-thursday-august-20#main-content) [![CLAYTON POPE COMMODITIES 3-3](https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CLAYTON%20POPE%20COMMODITIES%203-3.png?width=300&height=135&name=CLAYTON%20POPE%20COMMODITIES%203-3.png "CLAYTON POPE COMMODITIES 3-3")](https://www.claytonpopecommodities.com/) [All posts](https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/all) October 13, 2026 # Daily comment for Thursday, August 20 ![Picture of Taylor Pope](https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/hs-fs/hubfs/1728420772119.jpg?width=50&name=1728420772119.jpg) By  [Taylor Pope](https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/author/taylor-pope)  ·  4 minute read | CONTRACT | CLOSE | NET CHANGE | | --- | --- | --- | | Sep '26 Corn | 478 3/4 | +5 3/4 | | Dec '26 Corn | 503 1/2 | +5 1/2 | | Sep '26 Beans | 1220 3/4 | -1 1/2 | | Nov '26 Beans | 1236 1/2 | -0 3/4 | | Sep '26 Chi Wheat | 682 3/4 | +2 1/2 | | Sep '26 KC Wheat | 762 1/4 | +0 1/4 | | Dec '26 Cotton | 88.33 | -0.02 | | Crude Oil (spot futures) | 86.54 | +2.15 | | US Dollar Index (spot futures) | 98.81 | +0.12 | | Dow Jones (spot futures) | 52,839 | -691 | ## Daily Glance Corn kept right on going today, pushing to new highs for the move and getting within a hair of the high we have been watching before easing back, though it still finished near the upper end of its range. Beans could not keep up, trading higher for most of the session and getting within striking distance of their May highs before rolling over to finish a shade lower. Wheat managed a small gain. ### Want the rest of today's comment? Leave your name and email to read the full daily market comment, including technicals, weather and trade implications. The tour still has the headlines. Illinois and western Iowa both came back below last year and below their five year averages, but today's run through southern Minnesota looked considerably better, with corn holding up well against recent averages and pod counts among the best seen on those routes in years. Eastern Iowa and the rest of Minnesota wrap up tonight, and the final yield comes out after tomorrow's close. TStorm left its ratings unchanged again, corn, soybeans and winter wheat all still Neutral. Seasonable to cool weather runs through most of the belt over the next five days, with the heat staying well to the west and south. Outside markets were a mixed bag. Crude added better than two dollars, equities took a real hit, and the dollar did something odd, reversing from sharply lower early to close a touch higher despite the downtrend it has been in. ## Key Points/Developments **Technicals:** Dec corn added 5 1/2 cents to 503 1/2, clearing 500 and getting within a quarter of a cent of the 506 high this morning before backing off. That 506 area is the line to watch now, with 500 turning into first support, then 492 to 493, then 480. Nov beans slipped 3/4 of a cent to 1236 1/2 after trading up through 1240 and getting within roughly 14 cents of the May highs, then failing back underneath. That puts 1240 back in the way as resistance, with support at 1222, then 1210 to 1212, then 1199. **Spreads:** The Sep/Dec corn spread came in a quarter to 24 3/4 cents. The Sep/Nov bean spread widened to 15 3/4 from 15, new crop holding up better than old crop on a lower day. **Weather:** TStorm made no changes again today, corn, soybeans and winter wheat all still Neutral. Seasonable to cool covers most of the central US over the next five days, coolest through Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, with some heat hanging on well west and south. Next week is the tougher call. Hot upper level high pressure is trying to return, but TStorm thinks energy keeps flowing through with cool fronts and leaves most of the belt seasonable. They point out that the GFS ensemble insists on pushing that heat much further north, and they are betting against it, figuring the storm track runs too fast and too close for it to happen. The thing to watch from here is dryness. If their forecast holds, corn and soybean dryness starts to build as the wet stretch from late June and early July rolls out of the 60 day window and the drying in late July and late August takes over. Their own caveat is that yields have historically held up fine with drying this late in the year. ## Markets/Trading Implications Considering what the tour has turned up so far and the buying we have seen all week, we would not imagine this market is at much risk of selling off hard tomorrow. What we could see is the trade fading whatever final yield the tour puts out after Friday's close, and that goes double if the number comes in friendly. The trade is looking for something in the 176 to 178 range against the 180 and change USDA gave us, so a number down in there reads bullish on its face. It is a lot like China buying though, where the rumor of it rallies the market and the actual purchase takes it right back down. We have seen enough of those to be careful. We will keep saying it, this tour gets more publicity than it deserves. The general findings do not usually add up to their own final yield, and even when they do there has been very little correlation over the longer run with what actually comes out of the field. That said, the crop is clearly not perfect and the tour is going to turn up those gaps. There was a good deal of chatter today about the commodity index breaking out, some of it calling it the end of a 17 year bear market. Worth being clear about what that actually is. It is a basket of everything, metals and energy very much included, not a grain story, and a fair amount of what is driving it is the dollar rather than anything in our markets. Which makes today's turn in the dollar worth watching. A lower dollar generally goes hand in hand with firmer commodities, so whether that reversal was noise or the start of something means a good deal more to that index than anything the tour turns up tomorrow. We are still at 40 percent on new crop and in no hurry to add into a market acting like this one. ## Other Notes - Illinois came in at 184.2 bushels against last year's 199.6 and a five year average of 199.15, with NASS carrying the state at 212 in the August report. The western third of Iowa was 190.7, close to its five year average, while NASS has Iowa at a record 216. - China said it will not comply with the sanctions placed on Iran this week, with its foreign ministry rejecting what it called an economic warfare campaign and saying it does not recognize them. - Export sales for the week ending August 13 came in at 41 million bushels of combined old and new crop corn against 53 the week before, 66 million of beans against 67, and 14.4 million of wheat against 9.4. New crop soybean commitments now total 436 million bushels, just over double last year and the largest since 2022. - Wednesday's open interest had Chicago wheat down 13,898 contracts and corn down 4,251 while beans gained 10,491, which points to much of the strength in corn and wheat being short covering rather than new money coming in. ## Static Notes - Commitment of Traders report for trading through Tuesday, August 11, indicated that actively traded funds sold 15k corn, reducing their net long to 167k. They sold 24k soybeans, reducing their net long to 101k. They sold 8k wheat, increasing their net short to 31k. - In the seven market days since this report, corn gained 43 cents, beans gained 67 3/4 cents, and Chicago wheat gained 52 1/2 cents. Have a nice evening! Clayton and Taylor --- **RISK DISCLAIMER:** Trading in futures products entails significant risks of loss which must be understood prior to trading and may not be appropriate for all investors. Please contact your account representative for more information on these risks. Past performance of actual trades or strategies cited herein is not necessarily indicative of future performance. 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Please contact your account representative for more information on these risks. Past performance of actual trades or strategies cited herein is not necessarily indicative of future performance. Copyright © 2026, Clayton Pope Commodities ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Taylor Pope", "url" : "https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/author/taylor-pope" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-13T20:32:11.899Z", "datePublished" : "2026-08-20T21:22:17.000Z", "headline" : "Daily comment for Thursday, August 20", "image" : [ "https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/hubfs/CLAYTON%20POPE%20COMMODITIES%201-01.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/daily-comment-for-thursday-august-20", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/hubfs/Untitled%20design.png" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "Article", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : [ "Taylor Pope" ], "url" : "https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/author/taylor-pope" }, "datePublished" : "2026-08-20T21:22:17+0000", "description" : "Corn kept right on going today, pushing to new highs for the move and getting within a hair of the high we have been watching before easing back...", "headline" : "Daily comment for Thursday, August 20", "image" : "https://44292880.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/44292880/CLAYTON%20POPE%20COMMODITIES%201-01.jpg", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "" }, "name" : "Clayton Pope Commodities" }, "url" : "https://blog.claytonpopecommodities.com/newsletters/daily-comment-for-thursday-august-20" } ```