In the overnight session the grains traded higher with corn up 3 3/4 cents, soybeans up 10 1/4 cents and wheat up 5 1/2 cents this morning. The U.S. dollar is up nearly 1/2 a percent and crude oil is 29 cents higher. A reportable sale of 140,000 metric tons of old crop soybeans was announced this morning.
Export sales were strong this morning with soybeans and wheat beating analyst expectations. Old crop corn sales booked 364,900 metric tons which was within the analyst expectations and up sharply from last week’s marketing year low. Wheat sales topped expectations by 100,000 metric tons with 699,400 metric tons booked, and Soybeans booked 416,700 metric tons which was well above the 100-200,000 metric tons expected. New crop corn and soybean sales also outperformed with corn booking 443,300 metric tons and soybeans booking 899,100 metric tons. This week’s new crop sales were up substantially from last week.
Ethanol production declined 8,000 barrels per day this week to 965,000 barrels per day. This is the third weekly decline, but production levels are still well above last year and 101,000 barrels per day above the 4 year average. Ethanol stocks increased 89,000 barrels per day to 19.65 million barrels this week.
Today the spring wheat tour will be releasing its yield forecast after touring North Dakota since Tuesday. So far reports have been very positive with the first day yield estimate coming in 51.1 bushels per acre compared to 48.3 bushels per acre last year.
Russia’s largest farming region wrapped up harvest with 9.8 million metric tons of grain, an increase of 650,000 metric tons compared to last year. The Russian grain crop is looking relatively healthy with expectations for 100 million metric tons harvested this year, down 5 percent from 2014.
Basis is heating up for end users in the eastern grain belt after weeks of futures price declines. A soybean plant out of Claypool Indiana increased basis another 10 cents to +90X after jumping 10 cents the day before. In Morristown IN, a grain buyer lifted its bid by 15 cents last night to +120X. For producers that still have some old crop in the bins, the futures sell-off has introduced basis opportunity.
