3/4/2021
Mar 04, 2021
It was assumed to be an uneventful day session after quiet, two-sided trade overnight. Concerns in Brazil's infrastructure along with a further delay in harvest and bean quality issues from widespread, heavy rains forecasted for the next two days sent beans to 31 higher early in the session. Corn benefited from spillover support to trade as much as 6 higher, with new crop nosing in a new contract high. This strongly higher trade was surprising considering a lackluster weekly export sales report had traders clicking sell going into the morning break. Weekly net sales for corn were poor at 116k tonnes sold (400-800k tonnes estimated) and beans posted a solid number of 334k tonnes (100-500k tonnes estimated). A lack of fresh news continues to weaken the corn trade but the funds remain long and have been diligently defending the 530 level on the May contract. Today's rally was sharply killed off shortly after high noon following an announcement by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that stated the Fed would be "patient" in taking action against inflation. This spurred a large sell off in stocks and commodities with DOW trading as much as 750 points lower. If nothing else, today is a good reminder that our markets are about more than just acres, yield, and demand. Soybeans still managed to finish the day 3 higher and corn was mixed.