2/2/2021

Today's trade was firmly lower in a quiet way and did not offer much for news.  Overnight, corn was trading within a few cents of the contract highs we set the day prior and looked poised to challenge that mark.  Beans continued their slow slide lower, finishing 11 under yesterday's close.  I currently do not see a need to do any type of panic selling but there's no shame in pricing $5 cash corn and upper-$12 cash beans.  Combining the recent lower trade with consolidation in the daily ranges in both corn and beans appears to be more risk-off and re-positioning in anticipation of harvest picking up pace in Brazil after some heavy rains.  Early Brazil soybean harvest remains well behind the 5-year average.  There was a daily export sale of 115,000 tonnes of corn for delivery to Mexico.  December soybean crush numbers were released today showing 193.75 million bushels of beans crushed in Dec, which is the 2nd highest month volume on record.  Some attention is starting to turn towards the February WASDE report which will be released next Tuesday, Feb 9.  Some trade estimates are showing extremely bullish carryout numbers of 1.1 billion bushel of corn and 100 million bushels of beans.  While the USDA has shown in the past that anything is possible, a large cut in corn carryout from one month to another isn't typical to their style.