Deferred soybean futures could rise further due to a need to ensure sufficient US soy acreage, Morgan Stanley says. "After Friday's close, for the first time this season, we calculate that farmers have an economic incentive ($7/acre) to plant soybeans over corn on land planted to corn the prior year." As such, the investment bank contends the market has started to position itself to steal back some acreage from corn. But soybean prices "can still work harder" to encourage US acreage growth. The USDA on Friday projected less-than-expected plantings for 2012 at 73.9M acres, and Morgan Stanley estimates the figure needs to get to 75M to keep soybean stocks from hitting "precariously tight levels" in the next marketing year. (owen.fletcher@dowjones.com)

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2012 12:45 ET (16:45 GMT)