Thursday marked the last trading day of the month and first quarter, which coincides with one of the more highly anticipated USDA reports of the year; quarterly stocks and prospective plantings.
The USDA estimates that there will be 86.51 million acres of soybeans planted in the U.S. this year, that was a hair below the average analyst estimate of 86.53 million but still nearly 3 million acres more than last year. Quarterly stocks were reported at 1.845 billion bushels, this was slightly above the average estimate of 1.828 billion, and above last years 1.687 billion.

With the headline numbers coming in close to expectations, the market was little changed at the close. From a technical perspective though, the Bulls were happy to see support near $12.00 hold, which is both technically and psychologically significant. As you can see on the chart, $12.00 has acted as somewhat of an inflection point through the first three months of the year. On top of that, you also have two major moving averages (the 20 and 50 day) coming in there. The 20 day appears to be nearing a crossover of the 50-day moving average which is often looked at as a bullish signal by technicians.

The big hurdle for the Bulls to overcome comes in from 1225-1232. If the Bulls can achieve consecutive closes above this pocket we could see that spur prices higher with the next upside objective being the 100-day moving average. Above that, and there’s the potential to fill the gap from January 2nd, which comes in from 1305 ¼-1311 ¾.

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