2/3/2021

We had another overnight session that offered mostly lower trade.  Spec money was very active in and out of the beans both buying and selling and turned into only buying with rumors that China may be cancelling their February Brazil bean shipments in favor of US cargoes sparking buying interest.  Buying interest in beans offered some spill over support into the corn and wheat boards.  Most likely, US corn will be the cheapest feed grain into the late spring but the surge in corn prices has resulted in wheat being penciled into some feed rations.  Current usage rates may have feed corn buyers concerned more about the availability of corn rather than price.  Ethanol production data for the week ending January 22 was released today showing a total of 6.55 million barrels.  This was a 21,000-barrel increase from the week prior but is 13.4% down from the same time last year.  Reports out of South America continue to offer a mix of bearish and bullish features.  The safe play here is to assume their rains are beneficial for their crop but there are reports of some quality and storage issues due to high moisture.  There was not a daily export sale announcement from the USDA today but there are whispers of more corn business to China last week that went unreported.  Trade will be looking at the weekly export sales report tomorrow for confirmation.