Grains close high:
Corn + 25 cents/bu (Mar @ 5.17 1/4)
Soybeans + 45 ¾ cents/bu (Mar @ 14.18 1/4)
Chi Wheat + 30 ¼ cents/bu (Mar @ 6.65)
Cdn $ +0.00335 (78.62 cents)
WTI Crude Oil +0.96/barrel (53.021)
Corn hit its limit today after the release of the bullish USDA report, and stayed “limit-up” as the trade closed this afternoon. Due to this, the CME is expanding corn’s limit to 40 cents, from 25 cents for tomorrow’s trading session. Wheat and soybean limits will stay the same, at 70 cents and 35 cents respectively, as futures traded under these values today.
It will be interesting to see if the trade can sustain the $5 corn futures and $14 soybean futures reached today as it performs during overnight trading. This threshold is extremely enticing for technical traders.
The USDA hit the markets with a bang today at 12pm. The big “data dump” of the year was extremely bullish for the trade. Results are below. If you have any questions, feel free to send Floyd or me an email or give us a call.
Corn was the big bull today, ESPECIALLY its corn stocks that were lower than expectations by a whopping 600 million bushels.
Highlights from today's USDA report include:
-Corn stocks came in below expectations at 11.322 billion bushels for December 1st stocks (estimates 11.951)
-US corn yield final estimate dropped a whopping 3.8 bushels per acre to 172.00 compared to estimates of 175.3, and down from 175.8. Soybeans dropped to a mild 50.2 bushels per acre when estimates were pegging it at 50.5, down from 50.7 in December.
-US Corn carryout performed at 1.552 billion bushels, compared to estimates of 1.59 billion bushels, down from 1.702 billion bushels in December
-US Soybean carryout at 140 million bushels compared to estimate of 139 million bushels, down from 175 million bushels in December
-US Wheat carryout at 836 million bushels compared to estimate of 859 million bushels, down from 862 million bushels in December
-Argentina soybean production was adjusted down to 48.00 million tonnes (estimates 48.4 million tonnes) from 50 million tonnes
-Corn harvested area was reduced to 82.467 million acres from 82.527 million acres, while soybeans was increased to 82.318 million acres from 82.289 million acres
- World corn, beans, and wheat stocks endings stocks for 20/21 all adjusted lower
In other news:
Wheat supported amid news that Russia is considering increasing their wheat export tax, making their commodities more expensive to importers as a result.
There was also news of a flash sale announced this morning of 120,000mt of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2020/21 marketing year.
The Brazil Mato Grosso soybean harvest is predicted to be 15-20 days later than normal, pushing buyers back to the US for sales.
Funds are estimated to be buyers today will corn expected to have bought 40,000 contracts (long 367,000), soybeans expected to have bought 30,000 contracts (long 202,000), and Chi. Wheat to have bought 25,000 contracts (29,000).