Market News

Soybeans up, corn down after USDA numbers

Soybeans were fractionally higher on short covering and technical buying, taking the path of least resistance. USDA raised U.S. and world endings stocks estimates. The production guess for Argentina was also increased and Brazil was left unchanged. USDA also left Chinese soybean imports steady with January. Soybean meal was down and soybean oil was mostly weak.

Corn was modestly lower on fund and technical selling. U.S. ending stocks were up on the month, with a lower export estimate cancelling out a bigger ethanol number. USDA raised corn production estimates for Argentina and Brazil, but did reduce projections for South Africa and Ukraine. Ethanol futures were lower.

The wheat complex was mixed, with Chicago and Kansas City weak and Minneapolis firm. As expected, the USDA numbers were bearish with larger U.S. and world supplies. Forecasts over the near term have generally cold conditions in U.S. soft red winter areas and warmer weather for hard red winter. Tunisia is tendering for 67,000 tons of optional origin wheat.