4/27/2021

Trade was highly volatile today with large, intraday price swings being a common theme.  May corn was the only bright spot, trading the expanded limit higher overnight, back to unchanged, and returned to 15 higher to finish the day.  The balance of the grains finished lower on the day, with cash and new crop corn 3-6 lower, and beans 19 lower after trading above the 1600 level overnight.  After 10 consecutive higher closes, beans were overbought and due for a correction.  We had an 8am export sale announcement this morning of 101,600 tonnes of corn to unknown, split delivery between the 20/21 and 21/22 marketing years.  The first shipment of beans, totaling 1.1 mln bu, to be imported into the US from Brazil was announced this morning, also (a good indicator that the domestic US bean price is a premium).  The latest crop progress report shows corn planting at 17% complete vs a 20% average and 24% at the same time last year.  Soybean planting was seen at 8% complete vs a 5% average and 7% last year.  Forecast indicates a large upswing in planting pace over the next 2 weeks.  After a strong rally through April, highs may be set in the short term as the market will now need to hunt for the nearby support levels on the charts before taking another run higher.