The long-awaited USDA planting intentions report indicated U.S. farmers will seed more corn and wheat acres than a year ago and nearly the same number of soybean acres.

Corn acres came in at the top side of trade expectations at 92 million for the 2023-24 growing season. This was 1 million more than predicted in the USDA's Ag Outlook Forum this winter and 3.42 million more acres than last year. Soybean acres were equal to the forum projection at 87.5 million, up 50,000 acres from last year. U.S. total wheat acres are forecast at 49.9 million, 400,000 more than the forum indicated and 4.16 million more acres than last year. The data collected for this report was taken in February and didn't factor in recent weather, which may cause planting delays.

The USDA's March 1 stocks data for both corn and soybeans represented multi-year lows.

As of March 1, ...