CF Industries (CF) (IPI) (TNH) (AGU) Trade Down as Wheat, Soybeans Plunge

Fertilizer companies CF Industries (NYSE:CF), Intrepid Potash (NYSE:IPI), Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. (NYSE:TNH) and Agrium (NYSE:AGU) were under pressure Wednesday, closing down on the day as wheat and soybean prices plummeted. Corn prices were able to generate a gain on the day.

In July agriculture contracts, wheat was down 21.25 cents to settle at $7.72 a bushel. Soybeans dropped 11.75 cents to settle at $13.52 a bushel.

Corn climbed 5.75 cents to settle at $7.295 a bushel.

Wheat and corn are expected to jump by about 5 cents to 10 cents over the next couple of days.

Companies supplying fertilizer will usually move in unison with the direction crop prices are going, as it is an indicator of the level farmers will spend on inputs.

Agrium (AGU) closed Wednesday at $84.02, falling $3.75, or 4.27 percent.

Potash (POT) (CMP) (MOS) (SYT) Trade Down as Wheat, Soybeans Prices Plunge

Fertilizer companies Compass Minerals (NYSE:CMP), Mosaic (NYSE:MOS), Syngenta (NYSE:SYT), Potash Corp (NYSE:POT) were under pressure Wednesday as wheat and soybean prices plummeted. Corn prices were able to generate a gain on the day.

In July agriculture contracts, wheat was down 21.25 cents to settle at $7.72 a bushel. Soybeans dropped 11.75 cents to settle at $13.52 a bushel.

Corn climbed 5.75 cents to settle at $7.295 a bushel.

Wheat and corn are expected to jump by about 5 cents to 10 cents over the next couple of days.

Companies supplying fertilizer will usually move in unison with the direction crop prices are going, as it is an indicator of the level farmers will spend on inputs.

Potash closed Wednesday at $53.42, falling $0.77, or 1.42 percent.

Fertilizers (POT) (MOS) (AGU) Down on Falling Corn, Wheat Soybean Prices

Corn, wheat and soybean prices all dropped on Thursday, as did the major fertilizer companies Potash Corp. (NYSE:POT), Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) and Agrium (NYSE:AGU).

In May contracts, wheat dropped 12.25 cents to settle at $7.405 a bushel, corn fell 1.25 cents to $7.5425 a bushel and soybeans lost 2.5 cents to $13.31 a bushel.

For the first time since 1996, Corn prices were higher than wheat Wednesday and Thursday, as corn was also short supply at that time, although this time it's a man-made problem from the misguided and highly controversial forcing of ethanol into the gas tanks of American car, pressuring the corn supply and pushing corn prices up.

Some farmers are buying wheat against corn to feed their livestock because corn prices have risen so quickly because of tight supplies,

Fertilizer companies usually fall when the price of wheat, corn and soybeans fall, as it's perceived farmers will cut back on spending on inputs.

Mosaic was trading at $75.49, falling $1.30, or 1.69 percent. Agrium was trading at $88.20, down $0.70, or 0.79 percent. Potash was trading at $56.19, dropping $0.49, or 0.86 percent.

Potash (POT), Mosaic (MOS), CF (CF), Agrium (AGU) Fall on Corn Price Drop

Shares of Potash (POT), Mosaic (MOS), CF Industries Holdings, (NYSE:CF), Agrium (AGU) are all lower as reports the corn yield for 2010-2011 have been underestimated, which has pushed the price of corn down, along with the fertilizer companies.

Soleil Securities said this concerning the situation:

"2010-11 yield corn under-estimated. Based on recent anecdotal evidence from a number of farm belt contacts, both test weights and corn crop quality is running surprisingly high from the 2010-11 crop;

"Trend reversal. This means that corn carryover stocks could be actually higher than reflected in the latest WASDE report, that corn consumption estimates in future WASDE's could be lower than expected, increasing corn carryover estimates going forward.

Priced for perfection. These data should be negative for corn prices and for ag equities. The near-month corn price of around $7.26/bu reached its mid-June 2008 peak last week before backing off. Many ag equities, especially fertilizer equities, trade in lock-step with the corn price, and could trade off going into the March grain stocks report.

CF Industries was trading at $128.09, dropping $0.81, or 0.63 percent, as of 2:53 PM EST. Potash Corp. was at $58.15, down $0.97, or 1.64 percent. Agrium was trading at $92.62, falling $1.39, or 1.48 percent. Mosaic was at $81.94, down $0.78, or 0.94 percent.