In the overnight session the grains are trading lower with corn down 3 1/4 cents, soybeans down 3/4 cents and wheat down 4 1/4 cents this morning. The U.S. dollar index is trading higher by .67 percent and crude oil is down 20 cents.
Ethanol production fell 4,000 barrels per day last week to 948,000 barrels per day. Ethanol production has been in a seasonal decline since early June but continues to be well ahead of the four year moving average and last year’s production levels. This week’s production was 27,000 barrels per day over last year’s production and 87,000 barrels per day over the four year moving average. Ethanol stocks also increased last week by 374,000 barrels to 19 million barrels of ethanol this week.
Export sales were positive for new crop with corn, soybeans and wheat all meeting expectations late in the marketing year. Old crop corn booked 112,700 metric tons which was within the range of analyst estimates and much better than last week’s cancelations. Soybeans also showed positive sales with 60,500 metric tons which actually beat the high side of analyst expectations. Wheat was on the low end of trade expectations which ranged from 250,000-500,000 metric tons by booking 277,500 metric tons, less than half of what was booked last week.
New crop sales were very strong for soybeans but disappointing for corn. New crop soybean sales totaled to 1,532,800 metric tons which was better than expectations which ranged from 700,000-900,000. This morning’s export sales report was accompanied a reportable sale announcement of an additional 110,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans to China and another 773,400 metric tons of U.S. soybeans to unknown destinations. New crop corn sales only totaled to 328,300 metric tons below expectations which ranged from 500,000-700,000 metric tons.
