Aftnernoon Comments for 3/11/2013

Afternoon Comments 3/11/2013

Monday, March 11, 2013, 1:25 pm
Submitted by: Kyle Lehman

Markets are higher at midday lead by corn up 8 ½ cents while soybeans trade 6 ½ cents higher. The weekend saw good amounts of rain from the Midwest stretching down into the delta of anywhere from ½” to 2” (Top Map). The USDA drought monitor will be released Thursday and is expected to show slight improvements to much of the Midwest but drought conditions will still be present. The central plains and western corn belt have seen above normal precip over the past 30 days which should reduce the severity of drought conditions (Lower map). Thursdays USDA drought monitor is expected to show slight improvements.

Trade is already questioning the USDA feed/residual number from Friday which will either be confirmed or contradicted in the quarterly stocks report March 28^th. The other talking point is possibly a reduction in the amount of corn used for ethanol.  Along with the quarterly stocks will be planting intentions which are estimated to be around 98 million acres of corn and unchanged for soybean acres. With the recent market rally this may be a good opportunity to reduce some new crop risk heading into the report March 28^th.

http://www.fccoop.com/markets/commentary_detail.cfm?CommentaryID=1631