Anticipated crop acres in the USDA's Prospective Plantings report last week came in well above trade estimates for corn, while soybean and wheat predictions fell under the average trade guess. 

Corn acres for this coming season are projected at 97 million, 7.3 million more than last year’s plantings. Soybean acres are forecast to rise to 83.5 million, a 7.4 million increase. Wheat plantings are forecast to decrease to 44.7 million acres, down 458,000 from a year ago. 

Acreage increases were the result of 11 million acres of prevent plant from last year coming back into production this year.

To be correct, that will require near perfect planting conditions across the entire U.S., where we are already seeing some delays. Also, the data used by the USDA to generate these estimates was collected prior to recent market reaction to the coronavirus, which will undoubtedly impact actual plantings. 

The quarterly stocks data as of March 1 showed a draw down in ...