Highlights
The Fed left rates unchanged at 5.5%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said an interest rate hike was "unlikely" and that his baseline scenario is still for inflation to cool and pave the way for lower interest rates. There will be some “quantitative easing” starting in June, meaning some movement to increase the money supply. As we expected, the Fed will not make a serious effort to get inflation lower in the Presidential election year.
The USDA crush report for March was released after the close yesterday. The corn crush was 522 million bushels, up 7% from March a year ago.
Corn for ethanol was 469 million bu., also up 7% from a year ago and 5.5 million bushels more than expected by the market.
The soybean crush in March was 204 million bushels, up 6 million bushels (3%) from a year ago. That was about 1.5 million fewer bushels than the market expected. Accumulated crush this marketing year to date is up 5% from the same period a year ago, and the USDA projects it to be up 4% for the whole year.