4/16/2021

Apr 16, 2021


4/16/2021
Today was rather quiet in the markets.  Beans led the way higher on some Argentina strike chatter and also chatter of some extremely large basis pushes in parts of the grain belt.  It is rather impressive to see basis pushes to this extent on April 16th.  What is this telling us to expect for the summer?  Can we find enough beans to continue to crush or are certain areas going to run out?  My guess is some areas will run out.  Bean oil continues to climb to help offset the cost the processors are having to pay.  Corn was really quiet today trading about a nickel on both sides of unchanged.  Basis at the ethanol plants continues to improve and movement remains slow.  The farmer is unwilling to sell much as the market feels bullish and the 2021 crop is yet to be in the ground.  Corn will be hard to buy unless we see the magical number of $6.00 cash.  Can it happen?  I think there is a legitimate shot, but it likely needs to happen before June or we are going to run out of time facing the inverse.  This is going to be a wild year with some crazy basis plays in both corn and beans, so anything can happen depending on what area you’re in and the need for grain.  Be careful, the inverse is going to bite someone, it always does.  Don't run out of time.
 

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May 12, 2025
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Mar 31, 2025
USDA reported corn planting acres at 95.326 million acres of corn, which would be up a little more than 5% from 2024's final number and the second highest March figure of the last ten years behind only 2020's estimate of 96.99 mil acres.  US corn stocks as of March 1st were seen at 81.51 billion bushels, which was exactly what the trade had expected and was down just over 2% from March 1 of 2024.  USDA said farmers intended to plant 83.495 million acres of soybeans, which would be down about 4% from last year and was just a hair smaller than what the trade was looking for.  March 1 soybean stocks were pegged at 1.91 billion bu's, which again was nearly exactly as the trade had expected, and was up 3.5% compared to March 1, 2024.
Mar 11, 2025
The monthly USDA WASDE report was today and it was about as boring as it can get.  The USDA took the month off leaving corn and beans carryouts unchanged.  Corn remains at 1.540 billion bushels and beans at 380 million bushels.  World ending stocks were slightly lowered on both corn and beans.  World corn was pegged at 288.94 million tonnes vs 290.3 million tonnes previously.  World beans were pegged at 121.4 million tonnes vs 124.3 million tonnes previously.  All of the South American crop production estimates were also left unchanged.