MARKET COMMENTARY

Overall it was a quiet but positive day as both corn and soybeans settled higher, but off of the daily highs.  The funds were buyers: by mid-session they had bought 3k contracts of corn, 5k beans, 3k meal and 2k soy oil on short covering ahead of tomorrow’s report.  The soy news out of Brazil was mixed, on one hand you have lingering concerns that the trucker strike will fire up again but on the other hand you have the Brazilian Real weaker against the $US (again) which is stimulating farmer sales in that country.

The corn market didn’t have much for news to discuss today.  Brazil’s first corn harvest (remember, they double crop corn down there) is pegged at 35% harvested (vs 50% last year) while their second corn crop is 82% planted (vs 67% last year).  The overall weather scenario isn’t much of an issue in South America outside of a few spots in Argentina that are getting a little too much rain.

Basis on both corn and soybeans looked steady/quiet today.  Farmer selling remains light – the fact a fresh S&D will be out tomorrow morning hasn’t scared any bushels out (yet).  I guess that’s not surprising as tomorrow’s report isn’t expected to have major revisions in it.  Once we get through that report I’m guessing all eyes will turn to the extended weather forecasts.  For your viewing pleasure, below is an image showing precip maps for the 3^rd week (Mar 23-29) and 4^th week out (Mar 30-Apr 05) reflecting below normal precip for us... 

@fccoopgrain