3/16/2021

Overnight, corn traded 4-5 cent range and was mostly higher and soybeans were mixed while trade shrugged off the low NOPA crush numbers from yesterday.  After a very supportive export sales report yesterday, the USDA announced a flash sale this morning of 1.156 million tonnes of corn sold to China for the 2020/2021 marketing year.  That's 45.5 million bushels and the first sale involving China that we've seen in 6 weeks.  Recently, there's been rising concern over China's actual feedstuff demand stemming from news on new outbreaks of African Swine Fever, today's flash sale should ease some of those concerns.  China continues to sell grain out of its state reserves, selling 2.26 mln tonnes of wheat at the average price of about $9.98 USD/bu last week.  I'll be the first to admit that seeing a large sale to China had me expecting corn to test its nearest spot of resistance on the chart at 559'2.  Price action was very choppy today with early gains given up to weaker trade, only to meet the money on the buying side and take us to a firmly higher finish over the final 2 hours of trade.  The May corn contract has added 21 cents on 4 consecutive higher closes, sending us up sharply to the top end of our established trading range.