Market News

Wheat, corn bounce back a little

Soybeans were mixed, adjusting old crop/new crop spreads. Most forecasts look mixed, warmer and drier in the western Midwest and cooler and possibly wetter in eastern areas, with flooding a continued issue. The trade will continue to monitor the impact of that flooding, especially as it pertains to acreage. Some U.S. river ports are currently closed due to flooding. Unknown bought 132,000 tons of old crop U.S. beans. According to Statistics Canada, canola stocks at the end of March were 6.567 million tons, down 23.3% on the year, and soybean stocks were 1.855 million tons, 4.2% lower.

Corn was higher on commercial and technical buying, taking back about a half of the previous session’s decline. Corn’s also watching U.S. weather, along with forecasts for harvest delaying rain in parts of Argentina. Domestic and export demand should continue to be solid, blunting some of the impact of record South American production and what could still be a large U.S. crop. The USDA’s next set of supply and demand estimates is out Wednesday and will include 2017/18 estimates, using the March 31st acreage numbers. Ethanol futures were higher. Stats Canada reports corn stocks were 8.360 million tons, up 7.7% from last year.

The wheat complex was higher on commercial and technical buying, bouncing back a little from Thursday’s big losses. The wheat tour in Kansas had a good yield, but with production well below a year ago and a high implied rate of abandonment after the recent snow in western parts of the state. Wheat stocks in Canada were up 15.5% on the year, but smaller than what some analysts expected at 16.601 million tons. In addition to the supply and demand numbers Wednesday, USDA will be issuing new U.S. winter wheat production estimates.