2/23/2023

Feb 23, 2023


2/23/2023
Corn was down double-digits on some of the biggest volume we've seen so far this year. The May contract gave away 15 cents on 258k contracts traded, the largest single-day volume for this contract. Soybeans settled just above their daily lows to post modest losses of 7-9 cents on average trading volume. The USDA Ag Outlook Forum Data gave us our first looks at what could potentially be our 2023/24 crop balance sheets but these numbers do not carry much weight. They are predicting 91 million corn acres and a yield of 181.5 bushels/acre with ending stocks printing at 1.88 billion bushels. This would result in a large bump in corn ending stocks from the current 1.27 bln bushels. Soybean plantings were predicted at 87.5 million acres with a yield 52 bushels/acre. This estimate pegs ending stocks at 290 million bushels. A modest increase from the current 2022/23 balance sheet. Weekly ethanol data showed output up 15,000 barrels/day to 1.03 mln bpd. Stocks increased by 249k barrels to 25.59 mln barrels.

Corn appears to be breaking out of some long-term consolidation to the low side. There is a good chance we see a potential visit to the December lows (636’6 on the May 23 chart) on this move.
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Nov 14, 2025
It was USDA report day today and overall, it was bearish for both corn and beans.  Corn Yield was only reduced by .7 bpa down to 186 bpa.  The market was expecting closer to 184 bpa.  Corn production is estimated at 16.752 billion vs 16.814 billion in September.  They raised exports 100 million, which is debatable, but possible.  Ending stocks on corn were estimated at 2.154 billion bushels, which is up 44 million from September and about 29 million more than the market expected. 
Sep 12, 2025
USDA report day.  Corn and beans were trading higher pre-report on thoughts of a reduction to yields.  Well....we got what we were thinking but the USDA decided to throw a twist into the mix.  The 25/26 corn yield decreased slightly less than expected by 2.1 bu to 186.7 bpa, but they gave us the largest planted acreage shift on this report in at least the last 20 years (+1.4 mil acres) spurred an increase in production to 16,814 mbu.  25/26 ending stocks were slightly lowered by 7 mbu to 2,110 mbu. 
Aug 21, 2025
Today the market ran higher on rumors for positive SRE announcements coming soon.  Bean oil was up over $2.  Beans finished the day up 20 cents at 10.56 Nov futures.  There is a chance we could make a run at the 10.74 Nov highs from back in June.  If we get there, I am a seller.  Bean basis remains in the garbage, so a run higher in futures doesn't help that either.  We still don't have a trade deal, so I think any rally is short lived at this time.