Futures jumped Friday afternoon after the USDA projections for corn and soybeans came in generally below expectations.
Corn, soybeans and wheat prices moved quickly higher on numbers that turned out to be slightly more bullish than had been predicted.
The USDA reduced its corn crop projection by 60 million bushels (mbu) from last month?s report to 15.143 billion bushels, 1% lower than last year. The report left the acreage projection unchanged at 82.7 million acres and made a slight reduction in yield to 183.1 bushels per harvested acre (bpa).
In addition, ethanol use was unchanged at 4.45 billion bushels.
Soybean production was reduced by 3%, or 121 mbu, from the October forecast to 4.461 billion bushels, which would still be a record high. Yields were cut to 51.7 bpa from 53.1 bpa last month while acreage was unchanged from last month?s estimate of 86.3 million acres, but still 5% higher than 2023.
The smaller crop was, however, predicted to trim U.S. soybean ending stocks to what one analyst called a ?more manageable 470 mbu.? Corn stocks were expected to shrink to 1.93 billion bushels.
The USDA?s wheat production estimate was unchanged at 1.97 billion bushels, unchanged from the October prediction. Ending stocks were increased by 3 mbu to 815 mbu.
The cotton crop was reduced slightly to 14.2 million bales, which was still 18% higher than last year.
Worldwide ending stocks projections for corn and soybeans were reduced and came in below expectations. The reductions, however, were pinned in large part to the smaller U.S. crops rather than trouble in South America.
The USDA left most of its South American corn and soybean numbers unchanged from last month, although it nudged the 2023-24 Argentine soybean crop a little higher wile reducing its estimate for the 2024-25 wheat harvest.
Source: USDA, Reuters