Highlights
Soybeans suffered a serious round of profit-taking yesterday triggered by Brazil’s soybean February basis weakening by as much as 80¢ in some areas where harvest is going well. The market ignored the midday 10-14 day weather forecast turning drier for Argentina.
According to Bolsa de Cereales (the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange), Argentina’s bean crop good to excellent rating dropped 11% to 44% with 8% of the crop poor, up 6% from the prior week. That is a big change! Soil conditions are still 90% optimal, but 9% is poor, up 7% for the week.
The US economy expanded 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023 vs. average estimate for only 2% growth. The Dow, S&P and NASDAQ all closed at new all-time highs yesterday and crude closed at its highest price in two months at $77.36 a barrel.