Market News

Corn up on short covering, while watching planting

 

Soybeans were firm on short covering and technical buying, rallying late in the session, with some influence from corn. U.S. planting is ahead of average overall, but still lags in some key growing areas, including parts of Minnesota and the Dakotas. According to wire reports, Informa Economics pegs 2018 U.S. planting at 89.4 million acres, a little bit more than the most recent USDA guess. Beans continue to watch for any developments in trade talks with China scheduled for this week. The National Oilseed Processors Association says members crushed 161.016 million bushels of soybeans in April, close to many pre-report estimates and a new monthly record as the industry attempts to fill some of the product void left by crop loss in Argentina, while finding new value as bean exports slump. Dry conditions during planting and development and heavy rain during harvest has hampered quality in Argentina, while Brazil had a nearly ideal growing season. Soybean meal exports jumped on the year, hitting 946,291 tons, and bean oil stocks came out at 2.092 billion pounds. Soybean meal and oil were lower on profit taking and commercial selling.

Corn was modestly higher on short covering and technical buying. Planting made a strong advance over the past week but remains slightly slower than normal mainly because of delays in parts of the northern and eastern Midwest. Near term, some areas are expected to see more delays ahead of a potential improvement. Informa Economics has U.S. corn planted area at 89 million acres, slightly above the USDA’s most recent projection. Forecasts have beneficial rain for some of Brazil’s second crop, the larger of the two and source of most of their exports. Ethanol futures were higher. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly ethanol production and stocks numbers are out Wednesday.

The wheat complex was mixed, mostly firm, rallying from their early lows, with Minneapolis in the lead and some spillover from corn. The winter wheat condition rating improved last week with more rain expected in some areas but the good to excellent category is still well below a year ago and spring planting is slower than average. Informa Economics, according to wire reports, has 2018 U.S. spring wheat acreage at 12.4 million acres, less than the USDA’s current estimate. The overall fundamental outlook remains bearish, with the next set of supply, demand, and production numbers out June 12th. Egypt bought 60,000 tons of wheat from Ukraine and Tunisia picked up 100,000 tons of optional origin milling wheat. Japan is tendering for 89,937 tons of food wheat from the U.S., Australia, and/or Canada.