Market News
Corn bounces back after lower open, soybeans mixed
Soybeans were mixed on spread adjustments, with January through May contracts weak to modestly lower and the other months firm to modestly higher. Dry parts of Brazil have received rain, with the potential for more this week, but dry conditions persist in parts of South America. The rain could miss portions of Brazil and most of Argentina, while longer-term outlooks are uncertain because of the ongoing La Nina pattern. Safras e Mercado says 88.9% of Brazil’s soybean crop is planted, compared to 90.8% a year ago and 91.3% on average. Even as sales slowdown, it was another strong week for export inspections, topping 2.2 million tons, mainly to China and Egypt. China’s General Administration of Customs says November soybean imports were 9.59 million tons, compared to 8.28 million a year ago as previously purchased U.S. beans arrived. The USDA hasn’t announced a U.S. soybean export sale in nearly a month. Soybean meal was mixed, following the lead of beans, and bean oil was down on profit taking.
Corn was modestly higher on short covering and technical buying, bouncing back after a lower start to the session. Corn is also watching weather in South America, with good rain in some areas against limited precipitation for others parts of the growing region. There’s talk of China buying U.S. corn, but nothing has surfaced yet this week. Weekly export inspections were up on the year and a quarter into 2020/21, the pace remains ahead of 2019/20, with China and Mexico the top destinations. The USDA says 0 tons of U.S. sorghum were inspected last week. Ethanol futures were unchanged. DTN says a feed mill from South Korea bought 69,000 tons of corn Friday, expected to be sourced from the U.S., while Taiwan is tendering for 65,000 tons of optional origin corn.
The wheat complex was mixed, with Chicago and Kansas City up modestly and Minneapolis down modestly. The trade is monitoring conditions for winter wheat as crops in the northern hemisphere head towards dormancy. Stateside, conditions are generally better for soft red winter than hard red winter and while there are concerns about conditions in the Black Sea region, the European Union crop mostly looks good. The trade is also watching harvest activity in Australia. The pace of exports for Australia, Russia, and Ukraine will be monitored closely. The global supply fundamentals are bearish, with new USDA supply, demand, and production numbers out Thursday. Ahead of the report, the trade isn’t expecting many fireworks for wheat, with most of the focus expected to fall in U.S. soybean ending stocks and South American soybean production. Halfway into 2020/21, weekly export inspections were above year ago levels and this marketing year is still slightly ahead of last marketing year. The top destinations were Japan and Mexico.
