Grains higher early Monday on corrective buying due to their oversold condition, but corn and soybeans also posted higher weekly closes which is helping out according to Randy Martinson, Martinson Ag.
Soybeans had a higher weekly close for the first time in 11 weeks and soybean meal also posted a key weekly reversal which is bullish. Soybean meal has been seeing excellent export sales and a flash sale was reported this morning to unknown destinations of 126,00 metric tons with about 2/3 new crop and 1/3 old.
Taiwan also bought 4.3 mb of U.S. corn this morning and there are news wire reports that China has been buying grains and oilseeds. Most of the corn business went to Ukraine and the soybean business to Brazil. While they have only bought U.S. sorghum there is hope for more sales of all grains.
Wheat futures are rebounding with Paris milling wheat which hit new contract lows Friday and pulled down U.S. futures. Russia and Ukraine reported record exports for January and Russia also lowered their prices to $203 per metric ton which has been undercutting the U.S. and EU but hopefully these prices will start to stablize.
The markets will also be gearing up for USDA and Conab estimates for Brazil. Martinson says the U.S. balance sheets aren’t likely to see much change so the focus will be on South American production numbers. Conab also releases Brazil estimates prior to USDA and there is a big discrepancy between the two so the trade will be watching to see how much USDA cuts Brazil’s crop.
Martinson says February base prices have also been set for crop insurance and are well below a year ago, so that may influence some acreage or planting decisions.
Livestock futures started lower with rising feed prices and profit taking and with new inflation data which is somewhat bearish. However, they quickly came off their lows.
