Happy Eclipse Day! Much of the ECB was able to see the eclipse today with a large swath of Indiana and Ohio being able to experience totality. Speaking as someone who resides in central Indiana it was a remarkable sight.
Perhaps the traders were caught up in eclipse mania, as it was a rather quiet day. Prices closed mixed with May corn closing 1 1/4 cents higher while May beans closed down 3 1/2 cents. July CBOT wheat closed 1 1/4 cents lower with KC July wheat closing up 5 cents. The DJIA closed down 11.2 points while April crude oil was down $.43 at $86.48. April gold was up $13.4 at $2339/oz.
It was a rather featureless day as the market sought direction in a rather narrow range. Lower soybean oil put light pressure on beans as lower palm oil pulled soy oil a bit lower. Decent corn loadings gave light support to corn as did recent cold & wet weather which kept progress last week to a minimum.
Corn export inspections came in at a solid 56 million bu. vs 58 million a week ago. 2.7 mil. went to China while 24 mil. went to Mexico and 18 mil. went to Japan. YTD loadings are 1076 mil. bu. vs. 795.6 mil. a year ago, or a 33% increase from a year ago. Weekly loadings need to average 48.8 mil. to reach USDA projections of 2.100 bil. bu.
Soybean export inspections were 17.8 million bu. vs 20.1 mil. a week ago. 7.9 mil. went to China. YTD loadings are 1.381.6 bil. bu. vs 1.695.4 bil. bu. a year ago which is a 19% decline from LY. Weekly loadings need to average 16.1 mil. to reach USDA projections of 1.720 bil. bushels.
The latest NWS 6-10 and 8-14 day forecasts are both warm and wet for the Corn belt and much of the plains areas with above normal temps and above normal rainfall expected.
Corn planting progress report was today showed U.S. corn progress at 3% which compares to 2% LW, 3% LY and 2%on average for this date. Illinois was the only major producing state showing progress at 2%, MO 7%, and KS at 4%. TX has 59% corn planted vs 57% on average for this date. The trade was expecting 4% planted in corn.
U.S. winter wheat conditions were rated 56% good to excellent which is unchanged from LW and compares to just 27% LY at this time. TX is 44% good to excellent, OK 78%, KS 49%, SD 44% and NE 68% G&E. Just 12% of winter wheat was rated poor to very poor, down from 37% a year ago.
The funds bought 5 mil. bu. of corn while selling 10 mil. soybeans and selling 10 mil. CBOT wheat futures today. Little if any impact was made to the charts today. The market seems to be biding its time until this Thursday’s April S&D report is released at 11:00 am central time.
Good Night.
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