Grain > Commentary > 5-4-2021

5/4/2021

May 04, 2021

5/4/2021
Corn surged higher again, setting a new high on the July contract at 704 late in the day but was unable to close above the 700 level.  Markets were stronger overnight and there was a buying spree at the 8:30 open, this was immediately met with profit taking until the monthly export numbers came in.  The monthly US corn exports recorded an all-time record of 9.47 million tonnes (373 mln bushels) in March, shattering the old record of 7.75 mln tonnes set in May, 2018.  Also providing significant support today was ethanol exports for March, where the USA shipped 48.3 mln gal to China, nearly tying the all-time record from April, 2016.  Soybean trade continues to find strength from the soybean oil market, which has been consistently setting futures contracts highs for the past 3 weeks.  Our updated planting progress numbers late yesterday showed corn plantings vaulting way ahead of the 36% 5-year average, to 46% complete (48% last year, 17% week ago).  Soybean planting also made a sizable leap, from 8% last week to 24% complete this week (21% last year, 11% average).  Locally, there are some early planted sugar beets being replanted.

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3/31/2025
Mar 31, 2025
USDA reported corn planting acres at 95.326 million acres of corn, which would be up a little more than 5% from 2024's final number and the second highest March figure of the last ten years behind only 2020's estimate of 96.99 mil acres.  US corn stocks as of March 1st were seen at 81.51 billion bushels, which was exactly what the trade had expected and was down just over 2% from March 1 of 2024.  USDA said farmers intended to plant 83.495 million acres of soybeans, which would be down about 4% from last year and was just a hair smaller than what the trade was looking for.  March 1 soybean stocks were pegged at 1.91 billion bu's, which again was nearly exactly as the trade had expected, and was up 3.5% compared to March 1, 2024.
3/11/2025
Mar 11, 2025
The monthly USDA WASDE report was today and it was about as boring as it can get.  The USDA took the month off leaving corn and beans carryouts unchanged.  Corn remains at 1.540 billion bushels and beans at 380 million bushels.  World ending stocks were slightly lowered on both corn and beans.  World corn was pegged at 288.94 million tonnes vs 290.3 million tonnes previously.  World beans were pegged at 121.4 million tonnes vs 124.3 million tonnes previously.  All of the South American crop production estimates were also left unchanged.  
8/30/2024
Aug 30, 2024
Corn picks up 10 cents and soybeans improve just over 25 cents on the week to go into the holiday weekend on a positive note.  Soybean export sales have picked up the pace in a big way.  At the end of last week, sales...