By Kirk Maltais


-Soybeans for May delivery rose 1.3% to $12.07 3/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday, with strength in vegetable oil futures supporting the soy complex.

-Wheat for May delivery rose 0.2% to $5.55 3/4 a bushel.

-Corn for May delivery fell 0.5% to $4.37 1/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Taking Cues: Strength seen in soybean oil futures on the CBOT translated to support for soybeans today - with the soyoil contract finishing up 2.9% to 49.01 cents a pound. "Beans getting support from overseas vegoils market that has perked up over the past month," Joel Karlin of Ocean State Research said. Palm oil futures in Asia have been running higher in recent weeks, although that strength has receded in recent trading sessions on increased production out of Malaysia. Even so, the strength in recent weeks has come from an increased demand appetite globally.

Paring Their Position: Friday's Commitments of Traders report from the CFTC showed fund traders closing short positions for corn and soybeans through the week ended March 19. That activity is believed to have continued today, and is expected to continue through this week ahead of Thursday's Prospective Planting report from the USDA. "The way the reports affect prices will be interesting since it will come out Thursday and then with the market closed Friday the trade will have a three-day weekend to think it over," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage in a note. The CBOT will be closed on Friday in observance of Good Friday.

Getting a Drink: Rainfall in Brazil is supportive for soil moisture for late-planted safrinha corn, John Stewart and Associates said in a note. "A front settled into central Brazil over the weekend where it produced good showers for safrinha corn," the firm said. "The front will remain stalled almost all week, promising to build in some decent subsoil moisture where reserves have been more limited." Brazil's presence on the export market has traders globally monitoring crop progress, with supportive weather signaling higher supplies out of South America.


INSIGHT


Easing View: Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal are forecasting that the USDA will pull back its outlook for U.S. soybean production from its first estimates provided last month. Analysts forecast that the USDA will peg soybean production at 86.31 million acres, which is down from 87.5 million acres forecast by the USDA in its Agricultural Forum last month. Corn acres are expected to be at 92.03 million acres, which would be up from 91 million acres predicted last month. However, these moves won't change what the USDA forecasts as the larger trend -- that corn acres are expected to step back from record highs, and soybeans are expected to rise to meet higher global demand.

Falling Back: Inspections of U.S. corn exports for the week ended March 21 fell back from the previous week, but for the marketing year remain up from the same time last year. In its weekly report, the USDA said that corn inspections totaled 1.23 million metric tons, which is down from the 1.33 million tons reported the previous week. Soybean inspections were higher from the prior week, totaling 768,711 tons. Wheat fell slightly, dropping to 315,395 tons for the week. For the current marketing year, corn shipments remain well ahead of last year's pace, totaling 24.41 million tons, a 34% increase. Soybeans and wheat are still behind last year's pace with soybeans off 19% at 36.55 million tons and wheat down 15% at 14.17 million tons.


AHEAD


-The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

-The USDA will release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

-The USDA will release its annual Prospective Plantings report at noon ET Thursday.

-The USDA will release its quarterly Grain Stocks report at noon ET Thursday.


Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-25-24 1520ET