From Farm Futures magazine:
Monday's market was about surviving USDA's bombshell and /Tuesday's/ was about sorting the severely wounded from the slightly injured. Corn took a beating once again, while soybeans and wheat managed to bounce modestly on weather concerns. Yet, all suffered from bearish signals in the outside markets and ongoing index fund portfolio rebalancing.
Fund managers may still have every intent to own corn, soybeans and wheat for 2009, but bearish chart signals could tempt them to wait until a bottom is found to establish their long (bought) positions. Meanwhile, Wall Street is in the dumps once again, worried that the current economic crisis could struggle throughout much of 2009. That tends to add to bearish sentiment at a time when the market is already vulnerable.
The bright spot continues to be weather related, with adverse growing conditions providing support for both soybeans and wheat. Ironically, the rapidly rising new-crop soybean/corn price ratio may leave the U.S. desperately short of corn acres this year, with farmers reluctant to pay high input costs without a better promise from the market. That could lead to quite a wake up call for the market when USDA releases the results of its producer planting intentions survey on March 31 if things don't turn soon.
