Commodity demand is starting to become more of a factor in price discovery. Given recent usage and trends, it appears as though yearly exports may be larger than suspected for both corn and soybeans. Domestic usage is also holding strong, even with margins not as strong as earlier in the marketing year, mainly on ethanol.

On the domestic side of commodity demand, ethanol is the leading point of interest. Ethanol manufacturing has been outpacing usage in several of the most recent...