2/17/2022

Soybeans breached 1600'0 for the first time since a week ago and corn ventured into the 650's.  After a strong overnight session, the 8:30 market open saw a fair amount of profit taking and soybeans were not able to hold above 1600'0 level.  We spent a majority of the day session in two-sided trade until some strength was, again, observed over the last hour of trade and we went into the close with corn and soybeans both firmly 2-5 cents higher on the board today.  March options going into expiration tomorrow and feels like the fund and spec money is possibly playing opossum going into the weekend and 1600'0 has suddenly become an important spot on the soybean charts.  The USDA confirmed a sale at 8 a.m. this morning: 120,000 tonnes of soybeans for delivery to unknown in the 2021/22 marketing year.  Weekly export net sales were mid-range of expectations for old crop corn and soybeans with 820k tonnes of corn and 1.362 mln tonnes of beans sold.  As expected, after last week's string of sales announcements, new crop soybeans had a big week with 1.526 mln tonnes sold.  The market remains on edge with the Ukraine/Russia situation continuing to develop and trade speculates on how it may possibly affect the physical corn and soybean trade.