Old crop beans ended the day with 1 to 1 ¼ cent losses, while the new crop contracts finished as much as 8 ¼ cents in the black. The May soybean contract finished the week with the same 1c loss, but was still up 50 cents through the month of March. Nov beans were UNCH for the week and finished the month up by 53 cents. The new crop soy/corn ratio was 2.483 at the close, which was up from the 2.446 ratio starting the month. Front month Soymeal futures closed Friday with 0.5% losses, which left May with a $1.40 loss on the week but $8.50 higher for the month. Soy Oil futures closed off their highs on Thursday, but still 29 points in the black. May BO was 31 points higher for the week and was 274 points higher for the month of March.  

The March Intentions data showed an 86.510 million acre planted area for 24/25 soybeans. That’s up 2.9 million acres from last year vs the trade estimate to see 1.9 million more bean acres. The largest increase was +700k acres for ND, while MO was up 400k yr/yr. The ECB states were +250k acres in each IA/IN/OH. 

NASS Grain Stocks data showed Q2 demand was 1.156 bbu from the 3.001 on Dec 1. That had March supplies at 1.845 billion vs 1.687 billion last year and compares to the trade average guess of 1.835 bbu. On farm supplies were 933 million bushels vs the 750 mbu last year and off farm beans tallied 9.12 mbu compared to the 9.4 mbu last year. 

Agroconsult estimated the Brazilian soy crop at 156.5 MMT, which was up from their 152.2 MMT prior estimate. 

Weekly FAS data showed 263.9k MT of soybeans were booked for export during the week that ended 3/21. That was below the bottom range of estimates going into the report. Meal sales were shown at 127k MT for the week. USDA reported 6k MT of soy oil was booked, which was near the top end of estimates. 

May 24 Soybeans  closed at $11.91 1/2, down 1 cent,

Nearby Cash   was $11.35 1/1, down 1/4 cent,

Jul 24 Soybeans  closed at $12.05 1/4, down 1 1/4 cents,

Nov 24 Soybeans  closed at $11.86 1/4, up 2 3/4 cents,