6/3/2022

Corn and soybeans attempted to trade higher overnight but time spent in the green was limited.  Soybeans were sold off going into the weekend following Thursday's big gains with the August contract finishing near the middle of its range for the week.  Price action in corn was much more subtle with most active contracts trading within a nickel of unchanged throughout the day.  Weekly export sales were unimpressive, specifically for new crop corn with a dismal 49k tonnes in sales.  Old crop corn and soybean sales were on the lower end of their trade ranges with 185k tonnes of corn and 112k tonnes of soybeans sold.  New crop soybean sales were average with 284k tonnes sold.  China has been quietly cancelling old crop soybean cargoes here and there over the past month and repurchasing new crop, which is the scenario our office predicted when the USDA began reporting export sale announcements split between crop years.  Approximately 60% of the total bushels for new crop soybean sales are committed to China (268 million bushels).  The big question this week has been "Is it over?"  Not necessarily, we believe the market is still very well supported overall but lowering cash targets for old crop corn to $7.50-7.75 and old crop soybeans to $16.75-17.00 should be considered.  If the market allows, a round of sales for new crop corn at $7.00 and new crop soybeans at $15.00 would be healthy.