CORN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Corn futures finished steady to slightly higher on the session after the USDA February report on Tuesday morning. March corn futures finished unchanged at 428 ¾, while May futures added ¼ cent 437 ¼.
• In February’s WASDE report, USDA raised export demand by 100 mb to 3.30 bb for the marketing year, pushing ending stocks down to 2.127 billion bushels, below trade expectations. Despite the adjustment, the market reaction was muted amid a still-burdensome supply backdrop and signs that demand momentum may be cooling after a strong first quarter of the marketing year.
• UDSA will release a weekly export inspection report on Thursday morning. Going into this report, there has been only one reported sale of corn as 130,480 MT for corn was sold to unknown destinations during the reporting period.
• U.S. corn prices have had recent competition on the export market as Argentina has posted bids for export corn that is approximately 20 cents/bu under the US. Lower price export competition will likely limit corn rallies.

SOYBEAN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Soybeans ended the day higher despite a slightly bearish WASDE report but had support from a stronger bean oil market and optimism over new Chinese soybean purchases. March soybeans gained 11-3/4 cents to $11.22-1/2 while November gained 10-3/4 cents to $11.06-1/2. March soybean meal gained $3.00 to $300.80 while soybean oil gained 0.58 cents to 57.27 cents.
• Today’s WASDE report held few surprises and impacted the markets very little with prices hardly fluctuating following the data. US ending stocks for 25/26 soybeans were left unchanged from last month at 350 million bushels. Brazilian soybean production was increased to 180 mmt from 178 mmt last month, but this was expected.
• Soybean oil futures pushed to new contract highs on Tuesday as the market finds more support after the 45Z tax credit package was announced last week.  The overall tax plan was friendly to biodiesel and domestic soybean oil demand.
• The strength in soybean products markets is helping support soybean prices as March crush margins remain strong.  Domestic soybean crushers continue to lock in supplies to protect the current favorable margins. March soybean crush closed Tuesday at a positive $1.68/bushel margin.

WHEAT HIGHLIGHTS:

• After somewhat bearish data on today’s WASDE report, the wheat market closed quietly and in mixed fashion. March Chicago fell 1/2 cent to 528-1/4, Kansas City climbed 1-3/4 cents to 530-1/2, and MIAX lost 2-1/4 cents to 568-1/4. No direction came from MATIF wheat, which finished mostly neutral, nor from the US Dollar Index, which is near unchanged this afternoon.
• Today the USDA indicated that 25/26 US wheat ending stocks increased by 5 mb to 931 mb. Expectations were for a 10 mb drop, so this put some pressure on the market. Nevertheless, world wheat carryout was down 1 mmt to 277.5 mmt; this was slightly bullish against expectations for no change.
• In other WASDE wheat data, Argentina’s production figure was raised by 0.3 mmt to 27.8 mmt, with their exports increased by 2 mmt to 18 mmt. Canadian wheat exports were also raised 1 mmt to 29 mmt. All the while, US wheat exports were unchanged from last month at 900 mb.
• According to their agriculture ministry, French farmers are expected to increase soft wheat planting by 2.8% versus last year, to 4.6 million hectares. While an increase year over year, this is about on par with the five-year average.
• China has seen only limited precipitation the past couple months, primarily in southeastern regions. There are scattered showers in the forecast for the next few weeks, but more will be needed before their winter wheat crop awakens from dormancy in 30-60 days.

DAIRY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Class III futures were mixed on the day with contracts through June suffering losses while deferred months were steady to slightly higher. March futures lost 27 cents to $16.36.
• Spot cheese posted a slight loss of 0.125 cents to close at $1.44125/lb. Whey lost a penny to go home at $0.72/lb.
• Class IV futures were sharply lower again, driven by yesterday’s poor butter performance. The April contract fell 81 cents to close at $17.15.
• Spot butter improved 1 cent to $1.6350/lb while powder fell half a cent to close at $1.60/lb.

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Author

John Heinberg