Soybeans were higher on speculative and technical buying, along with spillover from the outside markets. The dollar was lower while the Dow, gold and crude oil were higher. Even with fundamentals turning bearish, soybeans continue to see solid commercial demand. Also, the port worker strike in Argentina is dragging into its second week, so there could be at least some short term uptick in demand for U.S. soybeans and products. Still, that’d be only temporary and outside of continued rainfall delaying harvest in Brazil, prospects for South America’s soybean crop are generally very good. Soybean meal and oil were higher on spillover from soybeans.
Corn was higher on short covering and technical buying, in addition to spillover from beans and the outside markets. Contracts are basically getting ready for Wednesday’s expected to be bearish USDA numbers. Weather’s mixed, generally good this week, but cooler and wetter next week at least in many areas of the Cornbelt. In any event, it’ll probably be hard for corn to post more gains Tuesday due to that expected bearish set of USDA numbers. The trade sees quarterly stocks as large and expects at least some year to year increase in planted acreage. Weekly national USDA crop progress numbers start April 5.
The wheat complex ended narrowly mixed, mostly lower, on consolidation, profit taking and a lack of follow through buying interest after early modestly higher activity. Contracts were due for a bounce after setting new contract lows twice last week. However, fundamentals remain extremely negative with a large supply and not much new demand for U.S. wheat, pushing May contracts to another new round of contract lows. European wheat was higher on outside market direction; May Paris was up 1% and May London was 1.1% higher.
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