In the overnight session the grains were mixed with December corn up ½ a cent, November soybeans up 3 cents and December Chicago wheat up ¾ cent. The strong export sales for soybeans this week should help lift prices in the early trade this morning.
U.S. Ethanol production rose for a second week in a row to 1.039 million barrels per day. Ethanol production rose 5 million gallons a week and was the strongest production numbers in six weeks. Despite the sharp rise in production we did see ethanol stocks slip by .446 million barrels last week to 21.034 million barrels. Ethanol stocks typically experience a seasonal drawdown starting in the beginning of September, but this year they have held steady. Ethanol stocks are 5.6% above last year's levels and are a record for this time of the year.
This morning the International Grains Council announced that it has raised its forecast for the World Wheat crop in 2017-18 to 748.5 million metric tons, up from 747.6 million metric tons. The group's corn production estimate increased by 5.2 million metric tons to 1.034 billion metric tons.
Export sales were strong for both corn and soybeans last week. Soybean sales were up 67 percent from the previous week and significantly outpaced expectations with an increase in sales to China. Corn sales were on the high side of expectations, but were up by a marginal three percent from last week. Wheat sales softened from last week to 360,600 metric tons, down 41 percent from last week and on the lower end of expectations.
Weekly Export Sales-
|
Actual |
Estimated |
|
|
Wheat |
360 |
300-500 |
|
Corn |
1,288 |
800-1,200 |
|
Soybeans |
2,129 |
1,200-1,600 |
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