Grains were higher overnight as spring wheat continued its vertical ascendent to new 3-year highs.
This morning, Stats Canada released their acreage report showing only 22.4 million acres of wheat vs 23.2 million acres in 2016. The 22.4 million acre number is slightly below trade estimates of 22.7. Also fueling spring wheat this morning was the Drought Monitor which shows 25% of ND is in extreme drought, which is up from 7.7% last week.
Meanwhile, weekly export sales continued to show pathetic new-crop deals for corn and soybeans. Weekly new-crop soybean sales netted only 2,000 MT for the week. Year-to-date export sales for new-crop soybeans are a meager 3.4 MMT well below last year’s total of 7.0 MMT for this time of year. You have to go back to 2006 when new-crop soy sales were this low, but the real concern is USDA has factored in an all-time high for exports in their 2017 balance sheet which could cause soy stocks to balloon in future reports.
WEEKLY EXPORT SALES (in thousand MT)
|
Actual |
Expected |
|
|
Wheat |
492 |
350-550 |
|
Corn-OC |
316 |
350-550 |
|
Corn-NC |
68 |
100-300 |
|
Soy-OC |
312 |
200-400 |
|
Soy-NC |
2 |
100-300 |
Today will be the last trade date before First Notice Day for the July grain contracts while tomorrow brings two potentially big reports from USDA on Grain Stocks and Acreage.
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