Corn and soybeans were little to unchanged as contracts continue to hover at the lows established in mid-January. Outside markets overnight were slumping their way into the morning break, while wheat came under slight selling pressure. In outside markets, S&P futures and crude oil were off slightly while the US dollar continued its bullish move higher, reaching its highest mark since early February.
After the close on Monday, USDA released their monthly grain industrial use report. For soybeans, 160.45 MB of beans were crushed in January. That compares to expectations that averaged 159.8 MB. USDA also pegged 441.3 MB of corn used for fuel alcohol in January, down from 443.9 a year ago. Monday also brought fresh soybean sales of 140,000 MT to unknown destinations.
The Korea Feed Association (KFA) purchased about 60,000 MT of corn likely to be sourced from South America in a tender which closed on Wednesday. Brazilian trading house CGG expects the country's main ports to shift grain exports away from corn, which remained firm last month, to soybeans starting in March as harvest of the crop picks up in the interior of the country. Overnight, Egypt announced it received 6 offers on its latest wheat tender with the low-price supplier being Ukraine.
Crude oil prices sank Monday afternoon after the release of private analyst API’s weekly crude stocks report showed a greater build in inventories than expected. API reported crude stockpiles rose 9.9 million barrels on the week, much bigger than expectations of only a 2.5 million barrel increase and last week’s number of 7.1.
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