Market News

Corn, wheat bounce back slightly

Soybeans were modestly lower on commercial and technical selling, unable to follow through on the early gains. Soybean crush numbers for February were below pre-report estimates and the trade’s bracing for more South American export competition. Forecasts have some harvest delaying rain in parts of Brazil, but those delays are expected to be minor. Beans have now lost ground for eight consecutive sessions and made another round of multi-month lows. Soybean meal was mixed, adjusting old crop/new crop spreads, and bean oil was lower on profit taking. The NOPA says member firms crushed 142.792 million bushels of soybeans in February, down on the month and year, and less than what many analysts were expecting.

Corn was modestly higher on commercial and technical buying. Corn saw a bounce after hitting new lows for the move, with May establishing a new 10 week low recently. Corn’s also watching South America, along with pre-planting conditions in the U.S. Ethanol futures were higher on higher weekly production and lower stocks. Domestic demand is expected to remain strong, even if there is export competition, and even then, the real export competition is still weeks away. There’s talk, but nothing confirmed, about new export demand from China.

The wheat complex was modestly higher on commercial and technical buying, in addition to the lower dollar. Wheat also bounced off of its recent lows. There are concerns about the early emerging winter crop, but the supply side of the market is limiting a lot of the impact and could continue to do so. Long term forecasts do have rain in parts of the southwestern Plains, but near term, conditions are expected to stay warmer than normal for mid-March. Indonesia bought 100,000 tons of Black Sea origin milling wheat.