Weekly Market Wrap-Up
Grain Market Commentary
Friday, February 14, 2020
by Paul Matthews, Associate Merchant, The Andersons
Monday kicked off the week quietly without a well-defined structure to the trade as most eyes were looking to Tuesday’s updated supply and demand report from the USDA. Fears of coronavirus continue to loom negatively on the market and threaten to impair Chinese ability to live up to their phase one trade deal promises.
Monday’s export inspections report pegged corn up 100 thousand metric tons, wheat up 88 thousand metric tons, and soybeans down 770 thousand metric tons from last week’s numbers. Despite being down for the week, soybean exports are still up 5 million metric tons from last year, wheat is up 2 million metric tons. Corn exports are still lagging at 11.5 million metric tons at about half of the exports of 23 million metric tons this time last year.
The USDA report Tuesday left corn figures virtually unchanged on U.S. carryout while world ending stocks were lowered only marginally. Corn exports were lowered 50M bushels, however ethanol use was raised by the same volume, which essentially canceled each other out. Soybean U.S. ending stocks were lowered 50M bushels, and world ending stocks were raised 2 million metric tons. South American corn numbers were left unchanged and Brazilian soybean production was raised 2 million metric tons. Wheat stocks for the U.S. were lowered 25M bushels, and world wheat ending stocks were lowered only slightly.
Wednesday’s trade was a continuation of the week’s trend in a quiet session with China’s indeterminate absence from the market despite the USDA increasing export expectations and slashing of carry-out.
Export inspections Thursday had wheat net sales up 90 percent from the previous week, however corn sales are sluggish at 22 percent behind last week, and soybeans were reported at a more neutral lean at 8 percent behind last week.
Friday had soybeans initially trading higher, riding on the week’s positive sentiment, but fell off towards the end of the session, losing some of Thursday’s gains. Despite this slight selloff, soybeans remained resilient, closing higher for the week and finishing at two-week highs.
The market will be closed for the President’s Day holiday, and will reopen Monday night at 8 pm.
March corn opened the week at $3.8325 and closed at $3.7775 a 5-cent decrease for the week.
March soybeans opened the week at $8.83 and closed at $8.9375, a 10-cent increase for the week.
March wheat opened the week at $5.5875 and closed at $5.4275, a 16-cent decrease for the week.
Stay tuned to andersonsgrain.com for additional commodity market information.