Soybeans were sharply higher on commercial and technical buying, cementing strong weekly gains. Planted area came out at 87.5 million acres, up slightly on the year, and quarterly stocks were smaller than expected. The stocks total did reflect strong domestic demand, canceling out some of the impact from slower exports. The USDA’s next round of supply and demand estimates is out April 11th. There was probably also some effort by beans to buy acres from corn is early planting delays materialize as expected in some areas.
