Wednesday was a negative day for our markets. Spot corn closed down 2 3/4, spot soybeans closed down 1, harvest winter wheat closed down 5 3/4 and harvest spring wheat closed down 4. In the overnight trade all of our markets are back on the positive side. Oil closed up $0.10 yesterday at $74.66 per barrel. It is stronger in trading again this morning with it now valued at $76.49 per barrel. Our dollar has traded between a low of $0.731 US and a high of $0.734 US over the last 24 hours. This morning it is currently valued at $0.733 US.
Crude oil prices have been very volatile this week with prices up roughly $10 per barrel. This has given even more strength to the soybean oil market with thoughts that more will be utilised for biodiesel production going forward in the US. Soybean oil is at a high not seen since the summer of 2023 and has traded higher for 10 of the last 11 trading days.
Corn prices have pulled back over 2 of the last 3 trading days and have fallen just below their 100 day moving average. However they have been able to stay above both the 20 and 50 day moving averages. It looks like managed money probably took some profit over the last couple of days as prices got back up near the $4.50 on the CBOT. This market has been on a positive trend since the big losses were incurred when the January WASDE report was released which reported both the higher yield for last year in the US and the increase in harvested acres.
Ethanol production decreased by 1.5% last week in the US to come in at 1.095 million barrels per day. Blender demand was lower by 0.3% week over week however exports did increase from 141,000 barrels per day up to 217,000 barrels per day. The net result was that ethanol stocks increased by 2.7% up to 26.3 million barrels. Ethanol production remains very supportive for the corn market and the increase in crude oil prices this week will result in higher ethanol prices which is supportive for corn usage going forward.
Soybean exports in Brazil came in at 8.9 million tonnes in February which was about 1 million tonnes lower than expected. They were lower due to the slow start of this year’s harvest. For February their exports are expected to increase from 15.7 million tonnes last year up to 16.1 million tonnes this year. The soybean harvest is now reported at 42% complete which is slightly ahead of their average of 38% complete for this time of the year. First season corn harvest is reported at 25% complete with safrinha corn planting is reported as 65% complete. This is firmly ahead of the 57% average for this time of the year. All in all these are very supportive numbers for the production side.
Delores Seiter | 613-880-7458
Bob Orr | 613-720-1271
Tony Mitchell | 613-227-2525
Office | 613-489-0956
