3/24/2021

In what could be the lightest volume day this year so far, corn was mixed in both sessions and finishes 2 higher on the day in modest fashion.  Soybeans were higher for a large portion of the overnight hours and spent most of the day session between 2-4 cents higher before a push in the final hour of the day had beans trading above the 1430 level to finish 9 higher.  News is mostly still routine and the recent lighter volume we've been seeing recently makes it easier for the day-trade and speculator types to flow money in a favorable direction for them.  Brazil looks to be entering a timeframe that offers a good window of field work and Argentina is forecasted for significant rain to finish this week.  There is evidence of end-user coverage in soybean meal for poultry and dairy feed through early summer.  Weekly ethanol production was down 49k bbl/day last week, coming in at 922k bbl/day.  Ethanol stocks also rose 21.8 mln barrels vs the prior week at 21.3 mln.  Every day, more analysts are releasing their planting intentions estimates with most showing roughly 89 million acres for beans and either side of 94 million acres of corn.  If realized, this would be market-friendly for beans and bearish for corn.