4/25/2024

Overnight trade showed signs of weakness for corn and soybeans but they fought back throughout the day.  Corn was 1-2 cents lower until the mid-day point when the tide turned and corn was able to put together a nice finish of 3-5 cents higher.  Soybeans finished lower on the front 3 months and higher from Sept 24 and out, putting together a really good recovery after May beans traded 16 cents lower.  The May contract even saw some fractionally higher trade late in the session before closing down 3 cents.  While the recovery we saw in corn and soybeans throughout the day partially supported by a continued wheat rally, the weekly net export sales report certainly did not hurt on the corn side.  Soybean sales were a little weak and missed low with 211k tonnes sold.  Corn sales were well above the top of trade expectations at 1.3 mln tonnes sold.  Mexico continues to pile on U.S. corn purchases.  I'm still in the camp that between ethanol's current corn use pace and the export shipment/sales paces, the USDA needs to sharpen their pencil and make some adjustments to these lines on the corn balance sheet.  The current forecasted corn ending stocks of 2.122 is likely too large.