CORN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Strong buying in the wheat market supported corn futures early in the session, but as wheat futures faded on session highs, corn futures lost positive gains, finishing slightly lower on Thursday. May corn lost 2 ¾ cents to 448 ½, and July futures slipped 2 ¾ cents to 457 ¾.
• USDA announced weekly export sales on Thursday morning. For the week ending April 9, USDA announced new sales of 1.401 MMT (61.1 mb). This total was within expectations with Japan and South Korea serving as the largest purchasers of U.S. corn for that week. Total export sales are still trending 29% ahead of last year’s totals.
• Large front-end supplies of U.S. corn and competing Argentina and Brazil supplies starting or nearing harvest will keep pressure on the old crop corn contracts.
• Recent rainfall across the core of the Corn Belt in recent days has helped improve drought situations, but the excess rain in some areas has caused some planting disruption, which has helped support new crop corn prices.
• The concern regarding high fertilizer cost and the unclarity of the fertilizer situation has supported new crop corn prices and the concern of reduced acres in a market with high demand.

SOYBEAN HIGHLIGHTS:

• Soybeans had a mixed close with light bear spreading – May finished down 3-1/4 cents to $11.63-3/4 while November was up 1-1/2 cents to $11.56. May soybean meal lost $1.70 to $332.70, and soybean oil gained 1.73 cents to 69.33 cents with support from higher crude oil. The Strait of Hormuz remains blockaded, which will likely keep oil prices high.
• The USDA reported an increase of 9.1 mb of soybean export sales for 25/26, and 0 mb for 26/27. Shipments last week totaled 30.1 mb, which far exceeded the 18.6 mb pace needed per week to reach the USDA’s export goal of 1.540 bb. Soybean export commitments for 25/26 have reached 1.402 bb, down 18% from last year.
• According to the USDA, as of April 14, an estimated 29% of US soybean acres are experiencing some form of drought conditions. This represents a 2% decrease from the week before. However, this is also 6% above the soybean area in drought one year ago.
• Spot soybean crush margins rose 15 cents at midday today to $3.27 per bushel, which is the highest since October 2022. This comes after a surge of 14 cents higher yesterday to a 3.5-year high. This should incentivize crushers to continue buying soybeans and could support prices.

WHEAT HIGHLIGHTS:

• HRW wheat futures led the complex higher with double-digit gains, while HRS and SRW futures also posted gains but to a lesser extent. Looking at May contracts, Chicago wheat closed 4-3/4 cents higher at $5.98-3/4, Kansas City wheat finished 17-1/4 cents higher at $6.42-3/4, and Minneapolis spring wheat closed 12-1/4 cents higher at $6.51-3/4.
• President Trump announced that leaders of Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy reported it has turned back 13 ships since initiating its blockade of Iranian ports, underscoring continued disruptions to regional trade flows.
• The USDA reported an increase of 3.7 mb of wheat export sales for 25/26, and an increase of 4.8 mb for 26/27. Shipments last week totaled 11.5 mb, which fell under the 17.5 mb pace needed to reach their 900 mb export goal. Total wheat export commitments have reached 896 mb for 25/26, which is up 14% from last year.
• According to the USDA, as of April 14, an estimated 68% of US winter wheat acres are in drought, which is steady with the previous week. While recent rains may have slowed drought expansion, there are still many areas far too dry; at this time last year, only 38% of winter wheat was in drought. As for spring wheat, 18% of the area was in drought as of April 14, unchanged from the week prior.
• Algeria is reported to have purchased 400,000 mt of durum wheat, paying between $322-$334/mt on a CNF basis. This compares to their last purchase in December, in which they paid $315/mt.

DAIRY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Class III futures were down more than 20 cents from May through October today. The 23 cent loss in May brought that contract to $17.13.
• Spot cheese was down 0.3750 cents today, settling at $1.5725/lb on no loads traded. Whey dropped 3 cents to $0.68/lb.
• While the deferred contracts held little to no losses, nearby Class IV contracts were lower with May losing 33 cents to settle at $21.50.
• Spot powder hit a new all-time high at $2.1825 while butter dropped 5.25 cents, leading to a split Class IV spot trade.

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Author

John Heinberg