Soybeans were higher on technical and speculative buying. USDA lowered the 2009 production estimate slightly and took U.S. ending stocks under 200 million bushels. Gains were limited by expectations for a record South American crop with USDA raising its estimate for Brazil while leaving Argentina unchanged. Still, outside of a weak start, there wasn’t much pressure attached to the numbers as they weren’t all that surprising and China bought 110,000 tons of 2010/11 U.S. soybeans ahead of the open. Soybean oil hit new two month highs on good demand and the Senate’s passage of the biodiesel tax incentive. Soybean meal was narrowly mixed with direction from soybeans and oil offset by the supply implications of a record South American crop. USDA’s weekly export sales report is out Thursday at 7:30 AM Central. Soybeans are pegged at 200,000 to 350,000 tons, meal is seen at 75,000 to 150,000 tons and oil is placed at 10,000 to 20,000 tons.
Corn was lower on fund and technical selling following USDA’s supply and demand update. USDA lowered 2009 production slightly while raising domestic ending stocks to nearly 1.8 billion bushels on slack demand. USDA also increased world ending stocks and production and Alan Brugler of Brugler Marketing points out the U.S. production cut was smaller than expected. There was additional pressure from traders buying beans while selling corn. Losses were limited by the bounce in beans, late higher move for crude oil and short covering. Ethanol futures were pretty much unchanged. Weekly corn exports are estimated at 475,000 to 950,000 tons.
The wheat complex was lower on technical and fund selling, in addition to the higher dollar. USDA’s supply and demand numbers pretty much confirmed wheat’s negative fundamentals. USDA raised U.S. ending stocks to more than a billion bushels for the first time in over 20 years and increased the world supply estimate. European wheat was lower on the negative fundamentals; May Paris was flat and May London was down .4%. Egypt bought 120,000 tons of wheat (60,000 tons from France at $164.55 per ton and 60,000 tons from Russia at $168.55 per ton). Weekly wheat sales are expected to be between 200,000 to 500,000 tons.
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