1/9/2024

Corn and soybeans manage to hold on to some small gains to complete a modest turn-around Tuesday.  Once again, no major new or market headlines to trade but just ahead of the close there was a murmur of some potential corn export business FINALLY getting done.  Full estimates for our USDA report on Friday show that analysts expect South American crop production to be cut roughly 3% from the December report but is still expected to provide a significant influx of supply to the market during their seasonal harvests.  U.S. crop figures and data are expected to be mostly unchanged from December with corn sticking with a 174.9 bu/ac yield but a slight trimming of acres to bring down total production.  The soybean balance sheet is expected to show virtually no changes from December.  Despite estimates not expecting too much in terms of surprises, this report still carries a lot of weight as it is considered the USDA's "official" guess for U.S. corn and soybean production and will provide us with acres and yield numbers we will use on our balance sheets for the remainder of the crop year.