Corn Firmer Beans Weaker Last Week

It was a rather quiet week in the corn market but corn did manage to gain around 5 cents a bushel. After weeks of rumors about China buying U.S. corn it became a reality late in the week. The USDA announced China purchased 300,000 metric ton of corn for the current crop year. That had little impact on corn prices even with the funds record short 261,000 contracts! The real question is was it just a "good will" purchase with U.S. China trade negotiations resuming later this week or the first of many purchases?

It was another disappointing week for bean prices as beans lost about 5 cents on the week. The weekly reversal we saw in the previous week is still holding on the charts so that was encouraging. The funds are short around 61,000 contracts which is a very large short position. The USDA's carryover projection of about 900 million bushel is making it very difficult for beans to see any rally. Remember this Friday we get the Quarterly Stocks report and the Perspective Plantings report from the USDA.