03/17/23 Markets Show “Nervous Stability” Going Into the Weekend

Grains are poised in overnight trade to open on a firm note as hopes build that bank crisis contagion will be held in check by rescue plans among global central banks. But it’s a nervous confidence that needs to get through the weekend without new crises developing at other banks. Stocks had a decent bounce yesterday and crude oil is up again in overnight trade.   Yesterday provided the 3rd straight day of big flash corn sales to China. And in what has become a near weekly event, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange has lowered its estimate for Argentina’s soybean crop sharply yet again. Yesterday it pegged the crop at only 25 MMT, down another 4 million from its last estimate. That’s now 8 million below last week’s USDA WASDE estimate of 33 million and down 42% from last year’s 43.3 million.   In other headline news this morning, Chinese leader Xi Jinping visits Russia’s Putin in Moscow next week. China has already urged Putin to continue the Safe Corridor deal that automatically renews this weekend unless he stops it. That’s likely a done deal since Xi’s trip is at Putin’s invitation and being billed by both sides as “showcasing…