Markets Firmer Wednesday

Corn did manage to firm up a bit Wednesday, closing with gains of around a penny. At least we did not give back the gains from Tuesday's USDA Report. The Dollar Index was higher early in the day and that kept a lid on corn. Later in the day the Dollar Index backed off and that allowed corn to firm up. Thinking about all the USDA numbers Tuesday, one caught my attention, the implied first-quarter corn use. We keep hearing from traders about the lack of demand for corn as they point out how it is lower this year. Well last year the implied first quarter corn demand was 4.2 billion bushels. This year it was 4.1 billion bushels. Sure looks like the same first-quarter demand to me!

Beans saw two-sided trading Wednesday until the Dollar Index backed off. That allowed beans to firm up posting gains of 3-8 cents a bushel. It was announced that China imported a record amount of beans last year but traders pointed out South America did get a lot of that business. South America exported 54.3 MMT of beans. Very soon we should begin to hear about yield results from South America. All I have heard so far is .3 percent of the beans had been harvested and yields were "lower than expected."