Chicago Beans Up On Strong Demand, Not So For Corn And Wheat
04/02/13 -- Soycomplex: Mar 13 Soybeans closed at USD14.88 3/4, up 14 1/2 cents; May 13 Soybeans closed at USD14.80 1/4, up 14 3/4 cents; Mar 13 Soybean Meal closed at USD434.30, up USD6.10; Mar 13 Soybean Oil closed at 53.11, up 12 points. Large weekly export inspections of almost 54 million bushels (nearly 1.5 MMT) along with the USDA announcing 116 TMT of US beans sold to China - split half and half between old crop and new crop - set the bullish tone. Weekend rains that disappointed, in Argentina at least, and a drier outlook for there also added support. Fund buying in beans was estimated at a net 4,000 contracts on the day. Argentina's Ag Ministry said that 98% of the Argentine bean crop has been planted versus 97% a year ago. A Bloomberg survey estimated Argentina's soybean crop at 52.9 MMT versus 54.0 MMT from the USDA. Ag Rural estimated Brazil’s soybean crop at 81.2 MMT, down from their previous estimate of 82.2 MMT. They said that Brazil’s bean harvest is 6% complete versus 5% a year ago. The USDA issue revised world crop production estimates on Friday.
Corn: Mar 13 Corn closed at USD7.34 1/4, down 1 3/4 cents; May 13 Corn closed at USD7.36 1/4, down 1 1/2 cents. Corn export inspections of only 5.348 million bushels were truly pathetic and only a tenth of those for soybeans. That takes the marketing year-to-date inspections to only 311 million bushels, less than 44% of the same time a year ago. Weekly export inspections now need to exceed 21 million bushels/week to hit USDA targets for 2012/13. Funds were said to have ended up as net sellers of around 4,000 corn contracts on the day. Argentina Ag Ministry said that 96% of the Argentine corn crop has now been planted versus 94% a week ago and 98% a year ago. They said that 25% of the corn crop is at the pollination stage and said that 83% of the crop is rated good to excellent. A Bloomberg survey pegged the Argentine corn crop at 26.4 MMT versus the USDA's 28 MMT. News broke Friday of another US ethanol plant closure, bring the total currently idle to 37.
Wheat: Mar 13 CBOT Wheat closed at USD7.63, down 2 cents; Mar 13 KCBT Wheat closed at USD8.17, down 5 cents; Mar 13 MGEX Wheat closed at USD8.47, down 4 3/4 cents. Wheat gave in to spillover weakness from corn, having traded higher for much of the overnight session. Weekly export inspections of only 15.206 million bushels were poor, even if they were almost three times those of corn. They need to be around 27 million to hit the current USDA target for the season. Egypt bought one 60 TMT cargo of US wheat over the weekend, the trade would have liked more. Intriguingly, the winning bid from Venus was at least USD10/tonne cheaper than anything else on the table (including other US offers). India continues to make a nuisance of itself on the international wheat export stage with 710,000 MT of wheat up for export to start the week - and they are already selling new crop too. Stats Canada's year end stocks report comes out tomorrow, with the trade expecting all wheat inventories at 21.7 MMT from within a range of estimates of 19.8-23.5 MMT. In 2011 all wheat stocks were 20.831 MMT.