Grains are mixed in the overnight session with corn down ¾ of a cent, soybeans up 1 ½ cents and wheat up 7 cents after a sharp selloff over the last 20 days helped U.S. wheat gain some competitiveness on the global market. Also helping wheat is the accusations out of Kiev that Ukrainian soldiers have come under attack from Russian forces in north eastern Ukraine. Russia continues to deny that it has sent soldiers to eastern Ukraine. This morning a reportable sale of 176,000 metric tons of soybeans was sold to China.
Brazil’s crop analyst Celeres increased production estimates for Brazil’s soybean crop to 94.2 million metric tons up 2.8 million metric tons from its August forecast. Growing conditions have been positive in Brazil except for the north-eastern growing region which has experienced a moisture deficit for most of the growing season. Despite the dryness in parts of the country the main growing regions have experienced adequate to surplus moisture which has more than offset the negative impacts on yield caused by dryness in parts of the country. More rains over the next two weeks should continue to aid crop development. The current USDA production estimate for Brazil is 95.5 million metric tons which increased 1.5 million metric tons from the December Supply and Demand report.
Yesterday, corn and soybean export inspections were both reported on the high side of analyst expectations with corn reporting 747,634 metric tons inspected and soybeans reporting 1,517,985 metric tons. Wheat export inspections fell within analyst expectations with 310,307 metric tons inspected for export.
