Grains are lower at midday:
Corn - 4 cents/bu (May @ 5.49 ¼ )
Soybeans – 12 ¼ cents/bu (May @ 14.20 /2)
Chi Wheat – 12 ½ cents/bu (May @ 6.12 1/4)
Cdn $ -0.00295 (79.305 cents)
WTI Crude Oil -3.22/barrel (57.98)
It was announced this morning that Japan had bought 111,000 mt (4.4 million bushels) of U.S. corn for 2020/21 delivery.
The export sales report was released this morning for the week ending March 18th. Estimates are in thousand tonnes. Corn had an expectedly good week for export sales with approximately 85% of the old crop sales going to China. The 2020/21 sales now total 98% of the USDA’s full-year (ending August 31st) target sales. Soybeans are also 99% sold on USDA’s current target. Whether export shipments keep up is the real question now.
| | Actual | Estimates | Last Week | Last Year |
| 2020/21 Corn 2021/22 Corn | 4481.9 144.6 | 3800-4700 0-500 | 985.9 240.9 | 1814.3 82.0 |
| 2020/21 Soybeans 2021/22 Soybeans | 101.9 65.0 | 100-450 0-200 | 202.4 0.0 | 904.3 0.5 |
| 2020/21 Wheat 2021/22 Wheat | 150-500 50-200 | 343.6 70.5 | 390.1 139.0 | 740.0 366.4 |
The Ever Given ship continues to stay lodged in the Suez Canal. Attempts to free the boat so far (past 2 days) have failed, and some people think it may take weeks before the ship is fully dislodged. This is halting hundreds of container ships, tankers, and other vessels. If this continues too long, ships will be delayed delivering products and we may see commodity prices such as crude oil jump.
After hitting limit up earlier in the week and reaching more than 8-year highs, soyoil has now fallen limit down. Talk about volatile. Although a drop in price, soyoil is still more than double the contract price from this date in 2020.
Corn and soybean futures are retreating on the lack of a fresh fundamental spark ahead the USDA’s March 31 estimates of quarterly stocks & spring planting intentions. The report is still 6 days away but the trade is anxiously waiting.