Soybeans were sharply higher in thin volume on fund and speculative buying, along with spillover from the outside markets. The dollar was lower while the Dow and crude oil were higher. Fundamentals remain strong with weekly export inspections bigger than what’s needed to meet USDA projections for the marketing year. Soybean meal and oil were higher following beans with meal getting additional support from talk of increased feed needs due to weather and oil gaining extra momentum from the higher crude oil.
Corn was higher on technical and fund buying, in addition to short covering and spillover from beans, wheat and the outside markets. There was more snow over the weekend, further delaying the end of this year’s harvest and leading to talk of increased feed needs for livestock. Weekly export inspections were larger than expected but less than what’s needed weekly to meet USDA projections. Ethanol futures were higher. China’s state owned news agency Xinhua quotes China’s Ministry of Agriculture as saying 2009 grain production was a record, topping 530 million tons.
The wheat complex was sharply higher on short covering and fund buying, along with the lower dollar. Overall, trade volume was light, as expected during this holiday shortened week, helping push March Chicago to a new three month high. Also, wet weather is delaying harvest in parts of Argentina. Still, the fundamentals are negative with a large world supply and not much new demand for U.S. wheat. On the other hand, traders haven’t been paying much attention to the fundamentals for a while.
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