4/4/2022

Opening calls for Sunday night were higher with corn and soybeans trading in the green for almost the entirety of both sessions after news of Russia purposefully attacking the ports in Odesa, Ukraine.  Odesa is a major exporting hub and early reports indicated significant damage that "may take years to repair."  The USDA made a very large corn sale announcement at 8 a.m. this morning of 1,084,000 tonnes for delivery to China; 676k tonnes in 2021/22 and 408k tonnes in 2022/23.  This is the single largest corn purchase by China since May 2021.  Weekly export inspections were on the strong side for corn and average for soybeans with 1.528 million tonnes of corn inspected for shipment and 737k tonnes of soybeans inspected for shipment.  Corn export shipment pace is now 11 million bushels behind the pace needed to meet the USDA forecast versus being short 34 million bushels the previous week.  This deficit started at more than 200 million bushels and has essentially disappeared.  Soybean export pace is now 58 million bushels behind the pace needed to meet the USDA forecast versus 62 million bushels the previous week.  Seasonal temps have been slow to rise in the north central region and trade will begin monitoring planting pace closely.  Modern high-speed equipment makes this less of an issue but the saying is "buy the rumor, sell the fact" and it may provide a premium rich marketing opportunity in the near future.

The December corn contract traded $7.00 for the first time since 2012.