Traders continued to exit their positions in the corn market as they position themselves for a big week of reports and tariff news that will impact the markets. May and July futures were down 11 and 12 cents respectively while December futures ended the week 8 lower. The funds ended the week long 57,920 corn contracts and short 31,821 soybean contracts.
On Monday at 11:00 AM, the USDA will release its March 1st grain stocks and the much-anticipated planting intentions. Estimates are listed below.
March 1 Stocks (Billion Bushels)
| March 2025 | Average Estimate | Estimate Range | March 2024 | |
| Corn | 8.151 | 5.050-8.311 | 8.352 | |
| Soybeans | 1.901 | 1.823-2.015 | 1.845 | |
| Wheat | 1.215 | 1.125-1.252 | 1.089 |
USDA 2025 Prospective Plantings
| March 2025 | Average Estimate | Estimate Range | Final 2024 | |
| Corn | 94.361 | 92.5-96.6 | 90.6 | |
| Soybeans | 83.762 | 82.5-85.5 | 87.1 | |
| All Wheat | 46.475 | 45.4-47.8 | 46.1 |
I look for stocks in both corn and soybeans could be bullish while the acres should come in as expected. If there is going to be a much larger corn acre print, I don’t think it happens until June when we can see how planting has progressed. It appears that the market is already trading 94-94.5-million-acres of corn, so something north of that would result in lower prices.
On Wednesday the tariffs that have been postponed twice are set to begin. Will they be implemented as threatened, or will we see another postponement? Until we can remove some of the uncertainty, I look for traders to continue to move to the sideline in a “Risk Off” move.
Its lining up to be an exciting week in the markets with the end of a month, end of a quarter and one of the largest crop reports of the year. If that wasn’t enough, the Trump Administration will keep us on our toes with reciprocal tariffs, ocean freight tariffs, imported car tariffs.
Upcoming reports
| Date | Report |
| 3/31/2025 | Grain Stocks/Prospective Plantings |
| 4/9/2025 | Crop Production |
