USDA report highlights: Soybean acreage and quarterly stocks data bearish

WASHINGTON, March 31: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s planting intentions report and quarterly inventory report on Thursday were bearish for soybeans.

U.S. farmers plan to increase soybean plantings to a record 90.95 million acres this year, the report showed. Analysts had expected 88.7 million acres before the report, compared with 87.2 million acres planted last year.

The quarterly inventory report showed that soybean stocks in all parts of the United States on March 1 were 1.93 billion bushels, an increase of 24% year-on-year. On-farm inventories rose 26% and off-farm inventories rose 22%.

Before the report, analysts expected soybean stocks to be 1.902 billion bushels, compared with 1.562 billion bushels in the same period last year.