In the overnight session the grains are mixed with corn up ¼ of a cent, soybeans are up 3 ½ cents and wheat is trading down ¾ of a cent. This morning it was announced that 108,000 metric tons of sorghum was sold to unknown destinations for 15/16 marketing year. The US dollar index is slightly higher in the overnight as well as the Euro fell to its lowest level in nearly 11 years. Traders are watching the European Central Bank for an announcement on details of its bond buying program.
The Thursday morning export sales report showed corn, soybeans and wheat all improved bookings over last week. Corn booked 828,100 metric tons this week which was up 16 percent from last week and within analyst expectations. Soybeans booked 499,500 metric tons of sales this week increasing 9 percent from the previous week. Soybean expectations ranged from 300,000-500,000 metric tons. Wheat sales increased 43 percent over last week, booking 469,600 metric tons compared to expectations which ranged from 350,000-550,000 metric tons.
Ethanol production dropped again this week, declining 16,000 barrels per day to 931,000 barrels per day. Despite the decline in production we are still well ahead of the pace of production seen last year. Ethanol stocks declined as well, falling 66,000 barrels to 21.53 million barrels. Traders will be watching the next WASDE report on March 10th to see if the USDA will increase their corn used for ethanol line item to reflect the strong pace we have seen in the first half of the marketing year.
China’s finance Ministry stated that it will increase spending by 33 percent year over year on stockpiling grains, edible oils and other materials in 2015. The finance ministry is expecting to spend 154.6 billion yuan which is equivalent to 24.66 billion U.S. Dollars.
