Grains are mixed to close:

Corn +2 cents/bu (May @ 5.53 1/4)

Soybeans + 9 1/2 cents/bu (May @ 14.32 3/4)

Chi Wheat – 10 cents/bu (May @ 6.24 3/4)

Cdn $ +0.00035 (79.60 cents)

WTI Crude Oil + 3.42/barrel (61.18) ßHigher in part by Suez Canal Delays

The EIA report was released this morning for the week ending March 19^th. This report showed that commercial crude oil stocks increased 1.9 million barrels to 502.7 million barrels, and ethanol stocks rose 0.5 million barrels to 21.8 million barrels. Ethanol supply is expected to have decreased 49 thousand barrels a day to 922 thousand barrels a day. This brings the marketing year to date total corn use for ethanol production to 2.715 billion bushels. This is 258 million bushels (-8.7%) from last year’s pace. This also falls short of the seasonal pace needed to hit USDA’s marketing year target by 23 million bushels.

As of yesterday, AgRural projected that Brazil soybeans are now 59% harvested (71.7% last year), while the Brazilian Safrinha corn crop is 90% planted (96% last year).

China reported this morning that they had another outbreak of African Swine Fever in one of their northwest regions, affecting approximately 500 pigs. Whether this outbreak leads to more, is unknown. The only thing that is known is if ASF does make a strong reemergence, grain demand from China will decrease.

Traders are holding their worries of next week’s USDA reports as corn and wheat dip lower. The markets are worried that the USDA might have a bearish surprise in either the quarterly stocks report, or the planting intentions survey. Overall, soybean and soyoil stocks are tight, giving some flex-room for the report, and allowing futures to stay positive today.

The February USDA Ag. Outlook was putting acreage intentions at 92 million corn acres and 90 million soybean acres. Privates estimates are pegging corn higher and soybeans lower: Farm Futures Corn-93.6, Soybeans- 88.5 and Markit: Corn-94.3, Soybeans- 89.7. Where the USDA estimates their acerage at next week is expected to dictate much grain movement as we head into spring. Until then, it seems that traders will keep the market moving sideways.

Wheat futures are lower amid good rains in the U.S. and their improving wheat crop. That was an older headline story, but with nothing bullish to counteract that, futures fell for another day.

The Export Sales report is due out tomorrow for the week ending March 18^th. Estimates are in thousand tonnes. Corn is expected to have high export sales due to the abundance of Chinese purchases we saw last week. Corn sales that are less than exceptional are not expected to be taken positively.

Funds are expected to be mixed with corn projected to have bought 2,000 contracts (long 355,000), soybeans are estimated to have bought 6,000 contracts (long 152,000), and wheat is expected to have sold 7,000 contracts (short 5,000).