In the overnight session the grains moved higher with corn up 4 1/2 cents, soybeans up 6 3/4 cents and wheat up 6 1/2 cents going into this morning’s pause in trade. The U.S. dollar is pulling back this morning continuing the sell-off on Friday. Corn is currently trading at $3.89 near its 50 day moving average. Crop conditions reports will be released for some the plains states later today.
Over the weekend some precipitation helped out central to eastern Texas, but that was not enough to provide meaningful relief for the drought that is focused on the panhandle of Texas and Western Oklahoma. Dryness looks to continue over the next two weeks with only expectations for light scattered showers. The Delta was able to dry a bit over the weekend providing some opportunity for seeding after excess moisture has slowed fieldwork recently. The weather should remain favorable in the far south for the remainder of the month with showers expected to return in April.
China has turned to Ukraine and away from the U.S. to source corn. In January only 13,663 metric tons of U.S. corn was imported into China which was down 93 percent from last year. However, Ukrainian corn imports have surged in February to 574,000 metric tons, up nearly 200 percent from last year.
