Grains were mixed overnight with soybeans posting solid gains, while corn and wheat hovered around the unchanged mark. Crude oil and equities were slightly firmer as was the US dollar.
On Monday, USDA’s crop progress report showed continued strength in potential US crop conditions. Winter wheat conditions improved 1% on the week to reach 62% good-to-excellent. Meanwhile corn and soybean plantings continued to move along with 64% of the US corn crop planted and 23% of the US soybean crop planted. Expectations going into the report were for 62% and 22% respectively so farmers managed to boost plantings quicker than expected.
This morning, Brazil’s official government forecaster Conab pegged the corn crop there at 79.96 MMTY, off from a previous forecast of 84.66. Meanwhile, the soybean crop projection also slipped to 96.91 MMT as compared to 98.98 MMT previously. In Brazil, the lower house was considering a new impeachment vote against the current President after the leader of the lower house had thrown out the impeachment on Monday. News of a new impeachment vote helped support the Brazilian Real this morning after yesterday’s sharp selloff.
This morning at 11 am CDT USDA will release their monthly supply and demand estimates report. Traders look for a drop in old-crop stocks for corn and soybeans, underpinned by better exports, while old-crop wheat stocks are expected to be higher. USDA will also release their first forecast of the new-crop 2016-17 year with corn stocks expected to balloon to 2.3 billion bushels and wheat stocks expected to come in at 1 billion bushels. Soybeans are expected to see a drop in stocks with traders expecting about a 400 million bushel carryout.
The risk of trading futures, hedging, and speculating can be substantial. Grain Hedge is a Branch of Foremost Trading LLC (NFA ID: 0307930)
