Grains Higher Going into Friday

In the overnight the grains traded higher with corn up ¼ of a cent, soybeans up 3 ½ cents and wheat up 6 ¾ cents going into this morning’s pause. Wheat seems to be bouncing higher this morning after holding a major support level of $4.92 ¼ which was the low back on February 2nd. Today is first notice day for March grain contracts.

The trucker strike continues in Brazil even after the Government offered truckers a year of free financing for vehicles from the state development bank, an offer to keep diesel prices unchanged for six months and to help truckers work out a framework for setting freight rates. This offer by the government resulted in some truckers ending their strike and clearing off the roadside, but many roads throughout Brazil are still blocked. Yesterday, in an attempt to break the trucker strike, the state Justice Minister said that the government would impose fines of about $1,700-$3,400 per hour on trucks who have blocked roadways. Despite the threat of fines truckers continue to block traffic throughout Brazil.

Weather forecasts in Brazil continue to show moisture in the forecast which has been interrupting the Safrinha corn planting pace. More rain is expected in the northern part of Brazil for the rest of the week and throughout the 6-15 day outlook. There are some slight concerns that the delays in planting could lead to additional acreage and yield loss throughout Moto Grosso.

Yesterday Brazil’s Agro consultant released their latest forecast of 14/15 Brazilian soybean production pegging the crop at 94.7 million metric tons compared the USDA’s forecast in February of 94.5 MMT.

—Cody Bills