Market Report: Some Surprises in the USDA Report

Going into the Planting Intentions Report and the Stocks Now Positions I was convinced it would be friendly for corn and bearish for soybeans. The result would be soybeans sharply lower, corn higher and eventually beans would pull corn down, too. Guess that shows what I know, because the exact opposite occurred.

The USDA reported farmers intended to plant 89.199 million acres of corn in 2015 compared to 90.6 million last year. The average trade guess was 88.9 million. For the stocks on corn they came in at 7.745 billion bushels compared to March of last year at 7.008 billion bushels. The average trade guess for corn stocks was 7.459 billion bushels. The result of the numbers was corn was down 13-18 cents a bushel!

In the report, the USDA said farmers will plant 84.635 million acres of soybeans this year compared to 83.7 million last year. The average trade guess for acres was 86 million. Soybean stocks came in at 1.344 billion bushels compared to last March of 994 million bushels. By the close soybeans gained about a nickel a bushel.

Where do we go from here? You have to consider what incentive farmers have to push it and plant more corn given they are projected to lose even more money after the report today. I suspect the market will quickly put these numbers in the rear view mirror and the major focus will be the weather.