Corn had a two-sided trade this week with March corn starting the week off at $6.77 and ending the week at $6.80. Support coming from the dryness in Argentina as well as some support from the wheat market with increased attacks from Russia. New crop corn didn’t have as good of a week as the nearby contracts. New crop corn started the week at $5.95 and ended the week at $5.96. The World Supply and Demand Report that came out this week showed slightly higher carryout numbers for U.S. corn. Corn carryout for 2022/2023 was 15 million bushels higher at 1.267 billion bushels. The increase came mostly from lower corn used for ethanol. World corn supplies got a little tighter dropping from 296.42 million tons down to 295.28 million tons. The biggest hit to the World corn supplies was the reduction of corn production from Argentina with production dropping from 52 million tons down to 47 million tons. Corn exports were stronger this week at 45.7 million bushels, but shipments were slow at 15.5 million bushels.
Soybeans also had a back and forth trade this week with March soybeans starting the week at $15.32 and ending the week at $15.42. Support coming from the continued soybean crush having strong margins and soybean meal shortage supporting soybean meal prices. Soybean meal continues to hit new contract highs with March hitting $501 on Friday. New crop soybeans also had a fairly good week starting the week off at $13.69 and ending the week at $13.78. Brazil harvest has been getting delayed from rain which is making some question quality issues and how quickly they will get their corn crop planted. Continued delays will start to cut into production. Soybean exports have been starting to slow down as China waits for Brazil’s harvest to continue. The World Supply and Demand Report showed soybean carryout for the U.S. increasing slightly to 225 million bushels. Soybean sales last week were 16.9 million bushels, but shipments were a strong 67.2 million bushels. U.S. soybean export program typically ends in March unless there are issues in South America.
Wheat played most of the week in negative territory until the escalation of the Russian/Ukraine war started to add a premium into the wheat market. Chicago Wheat started the week at $7.58 and dropped to $7.44 before ending the week at $7.86. U.S. Wheat supplies are tight at 568 million bushels but the 92-million-bushel wheat crop coming out of Russia is keeping the world supplies in normal range. It’s important to remember the United States is the wheat of last resort, so until there are world supply issues prices do not necessarily need to go higher. Continued tensions between Russia and Ukraine could be the factor that pushes wheat higher. World wheat carryout is currently 269.34 million tons almost 1 million tons more than the previous report estimated. Minneapolis Wheat posted some strong gains this week going from $9.19 to $9.30.
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