The corn market closed about unchanged on Thursday, near the highs of the session but the big story was the soybean market. The July closed slightly lower and the December closed slightly higher. The corn market continues to receive pressure from the big supply and weak demand, but the general market sentiment is that corn will have a hard time really breaking down until we start to get corn planted across some of the major growing areas. The soybeans were the big story in the grains yesterday as that market finally turned over when it got confirmation that China had cancelled bean shipments from the US and switched them to So. America. Corn was also supported by traders liquidating the bean/corn spread which had been a big trade lately among the funds. The weekly export sales were disappointing again which will continue to weigh on corn prices. The USDA announced this morning sales to So. Korea of 116,000 mt. The volume was relatively good at 173,000 contracts and funds were sellers of 3,000.

Overnight, the corn was slightly higher as the outside markets were supportive to the grain markets and soybeans rebounded from the big sell off yesterday. The July and December contracts closed up about 2 cents. The outside markets were supportive with the US$ down 40-50 points and crude up almost $1. It will be interesting today to see how corn reacts to the supportive outside markets. Technically, corn doesn’t look very good, but I still think that corn is in a range trade and will have trouble breaking out to the downside until the planters start to roll. The warmer weather has melted a lot of the snow across the Midwest which will allow farmers to have the opportunity to get into the fields faster than we thought 2 weeks ago. The upside is probably limited as well because of the weak demand. We have seen ethanol margins get worse over the last couple of weeks as the basis levels have gotten worse. The corn market will be called to open inline with the close over night, and then we will look for direction. The soybeans were higher overnight and will try and get back some of the sell off yesterday and that could help hold up the other grains if that market is higher.

Globex Overnight Contract Last Net Change High Low Volume ZCH10 357^2 1^6 357^2 356^2 72 ZCK10 367^2 2^0 367^2 365^0 4389 ZCN10 378^0 1^6 378^2 376^2 1967 ZCU10 387^0 1^4 387^0 385^0 1199

Early Opening Calls: 1-2 cents better

 

Cash Markets -- CIF Corn steady off 2. Mar. +32 to +34, April +35 to +36, May +39 to +41, June +34 to +38, July +39 to +41, Oct. +41 to +43, Nov. +41 to +43, Jan. +36 to +38

TREND: Corn and wheat were supported today as the toggle against bean selling. Look for corn and wheat to play catch up now. The chart at the right combines all the grains in a chart as a simulated grain index. Wheat and corn have already made bad trades and now beans join to make it a trio

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