Grains, oilseeds lose more ground ahead of USDA reports

March 30th, 2012

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(Brownfield) – Soybeans were lower on fund and technical selling, along with spillover from the outside markets. Beans were continuing to get ready for Friday’s USDA numbers with analysts expecting a slight increase in acreage and quarterly stocks. Past that – weekly export numbers were good and China bought 120,000 tons of 2011/12 U.S. beans ahead of the open. Soybean meal and oil were lower following beans. The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange lowered its 2011/12 Argentine soybean estimate to 45 million tons, down 1.2 million on the week alone and 8.5% less than 2010/11, citing drought and an early cold snap.

Corn was lower on technical and fund selling ahead of the USDA numbers, making another round of new two month lows. Analysts expect a big year to year increase in U.S. acreage and quarterly stocks should be down. Weekly export sales were a marketing year low but China and unknown both bought 120,000 tons of U.S. corn with China purchasing old crop and unknown picking up new crop. Ethanol futures were lower. According to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, 2011/12 Argentine corn production should be around 20.8 million tons, well below initial expectations for roughly 30 million tons due to hot, dry conditions during critical development periods.

The wheat complex was lower on fund and technical selling, along with spillover from the outside markets. Traders are anticipating a year to year rise in U.S. wheat acreage along with smaller quarterly stocks. In any event, the fundamentals remain bearish, especially on the global supply side of the ledger. European wheat was lower, also getting ready for the USDA reports Friday morning. Still, there are some dry weather concerns in parts of Europe, especially France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Bangladesh bought 50,000 tons of wheat from India, Taiwan picked up 41,650 tons of U.S. dark northern spring, and Israel purchased 25,000 tons of feed wheat, which DTN reports is likely Black Sea origin. The USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation bought 11,000 tons of hard red winter wheat for Kenya and 10,000 tons of hard red winter for Madagascar.

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