March 9, 2009

Very little news driving today’s markets, aside from continuation short covering in front of Spring worries and the USDA Supply & Demand report on Wednesday. Corn closed up 4 cents today. But U.S. equity markets faired better on the open than expected allowing crude to recover, the US dollar to weaken and grains to open higher than previously thought. Asian and European equity markets were lower on bank failure concerns abroad. Trader focus is on USDA report this week, weather and planted acreage ideas. Average trade guess for U.S ending stocks at 1,800 Mln. bu.

Soybeans started out of the gate fast, but were unable to hold the early mid-teen gains much beyond the first 5 minutes of trade. Then the market traded on both sides of unchanged until finally falling lower by the closing bell. Futures spreads continue to weaken and be inverted, which indicates bullish underlying fundamentals. However, the problem for market bulls currently is the fact that soybeans continue to trade in a vacuum, unable to break free and ignite the seasonal rally we've been expecting. Ideas that more acres of soybeans will be planted this spring continue to weigh on the market as well.