Markets Firmer Thursday

It turned into a pretty good day Thursday as corn closed 1-3 cents higher. Corn was lower most of the morning but there was a big reversal in the Dollar Index. The Dollar Index dropped sharply in the afternoon and that allowed corn to rally back. It helped, too, that corn had a very good Export Sales report from the USDA in the morning. Export Sales came in at 46.9 million bushels. While we are still lagging last year's pace, it was a very good number. The real question is can corn continue to rally with very adequate world supplies? I still feel it is going to take a weather event to help corn along.

The big reversal in the Dollar Index helped beans close about 3 cents higher Thursday. It is difficult for beans to rally at this time of year because of the South American harvest. However this year the corruption scandal in Brazil has sent their currency, the real, sharply higher. That makes beans from Brazil more expensive on the world market so maybe more business will be shifted to the United States. Traders were not impresses with the Export Sales for beans, but it was a solid number at 478,482 MT. Like corn, I think it is going to take a weather event this spring to get a big rally in bean prices.