As expected, the March WASDE report was a sleeper. The Prospective Plantings and Stocks reports due out in three weeks will likely be more consequential.
The USDA left their US corn and wheat balance sheets unchanged, while they made offsetting 5 million bushel adjustments to US soybean imports and crush. This left the US carryout estimates for corn, soybeans, and wheat unchanged from the February WASDE report.
There were only small adjustments made to the global supply demand tables. The largest was in the corn market, where global corn carryout increased 3.77 million metric tons (+1.3%) on increased production, largely in Ukraine and Brazil. The global soybean and wheat carryouts changed by less than 0.2% from the February estimates.
For their South American estimates, the USDA made offsetting 1 million ton adjustments to their Brazilian and Argentine corn production estimates. For soybeans, they cut Argentine production by half a million tons and left Brazilian production unchanged. Hardly earth shattering updates.
Markets remain volatile, largely steered by crude oil prices and conflict in the Middle East. If crude spikes higher again and pulls our crop markets back into Sell Signals, be willing to make additional sales on the rally.
With this sleeper report done, traders have three weeks until the next round of USDA numbers on March 31.
Source: USDA, Reuters