Grains were mostly quiet overnight awaiting direction from USDA’s reports out at 11 am CDT today. In outside markets, crude oil was off sharply, but equities and the US dollar had modest losses going into the morning session.
Traders will be watching the stocks and acreage figures from USDA later this morning for guidance. Analysts’ averages suggest a decline in corn acres by 700,000 acres over USDA’s official March estimate while soybean acres are expected to climb 1.6 million.
This morning, Stats Canada said farmers there would plant 23.2 million acres of wheat, off from last year’s plantings of 24.1. For canola, farmers are expected to hold steady on the year, planting 20.0 million acres versus 20.1 last year.
Also this morning, USDA released a flash sale announcement of 120,400 MT of corn that was sold to Mexico for 2016/17 and 2017/18 crop years. Weekly sales were disappointing for corn, but robust for soybeans and wheat.
WEEKLY EXPORT SALES
Act-OC Exp-OC Act-NC Exp-NC
Corn 468 700-1,000 536 300-450
Soybeans 730 500-800 798 600-800
Wheat 645 300-600
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