Market News

Soybeans, corn bounce back, slightly

Soybeans were modestly higher on short covering and technical buying. Contracts bounced back a little after Thursday’s post-USDA report drop. The market’s focus is back in weather, expecting generally moderate temperatures and scattered rainfall in the near term. Ample crop or not, demand should continue to keep a floor under prices. China bought 120,000 tons of U.S. beans, half for this marketing year, half for next. The new marketing year for soybeans gets underway September 1st. Soybean meal was higher and bean oil was lower on the adjustment of product spreads.

Corn was modestly higher on short covering and technical buying. Corn also rebounded slightly after a bearish set of USDA numbers. The production and yield numbers were bigger than expected, but the crop isn’t fully made just yet. Silking should be nearly complete, if not finished, in Monday’s weekly crop update, but as of the last report, the dough making and dent stages were slower than average. There are also some questions about the accuracy of the prevent plant numbers. Weather will be the big factor, at least until the September 12th USDA numbers. Ethanol futures were higher.

The wheat complex was lower on commercial and technical selling, with Minneapolis leading the way down. The USDA’s supply and demand numbers once again reinforced the bearish fundamental outlook, especially globally. The spring wheat number was larger than expected, but there are some uncertainties. At least some of the abandoned acreage has already been counted as harvested, with collection in drought stricken parts of the northern Plains ahead of normal, but there aren’t a lot of firm numbers, yet. DTN says South Korea bought 65,000 tons of feed wheat from an “unknown origin”. Taiwan is tendering for 98,850 tons of milling wheat.