CNS Canada –– Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) moved up and down during the week ended Wednesday, but posted losses on the whole as concerns over a truckers’ strike in Brazil subsided.
While large South American crop prospects remain a bearish influence in the background, the market could be due for a short-term correction in the lead-up to a number of reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“A lot of the bearish news is old news, but there’s not much bullish news either,” said Sean Lusk of Walsh Trading in Chicago. He placed the May soybean contract in a broad range between $9.55 and $10.35 per bushel (all figures US$).
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USDA is due to release its monthly supply/demand report on Tuesday, and soybeans will likely see some short-covering ahead of that, given expectations for tightening ending stocks projections, said Lusk.
USDA will then release its planting intentions report on March 31, and any dips in the market ahead of that report will be met with good buying interest, he said.
Corn futures are trading within a much more narrow range, with the December contract holding between $4.05 and $4.20 per bushel, according to Lusk. Anything below that range would trigger buying interest, he said, while there was plenty of selling waiting above the range.
In the longer term, corn and beans will soon find themselves in the midst of their annual battle for acres.
With soybeans looking to have the edge at present, the likelihood of a reduction in corn area should be somewhat supportive for that commodity, according to Lusk. Expectations for increased ethanol usage going into the summer are also supportive for corn.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.
