Corn, Soybeans, Wheat Bounce Back A Little

 

 

Soybeans were modestly higher on light commercial and technical buying. Contracts bounced back from some of the recent weakness, watching South America. Near term forecasts have at least some increase in rainfall in dry parts of Argentina, but the longer term outlooks are uncertain and a drier pattern would fit with the current La Nina pattern. It’s early in the South American growing season, roughly the equivalent of mid-June. The next official USDA South American production estimate is out in January, along with the final 2017 U.S. production totals. Soybean meal was higher and bean oil was lower, adjusting product spreads.

 

Corn was modestly higher in low trade volume on commercial and technical buying. Corn also bounced back a bit while keeping an eye on weather in South America. The USDA did lower ending stocks Tuesday on a bigger ethanol use projection, but 50 million bushels is a small percentage and 2.5 billion bushels is still a lot of corn. Corn’s a little more than a quarter into the marketing year, with new stocks data out in January. Ethanol futures were steady to mostly firm. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says ethanol production last week was the second highest on record, while stocks were down on the week.