Grains were mixed in narrow ranges ahead of the USDA report to be released later this morning.
Overnight, France’s Ag Ministry dropped their wheat carry-out projections for the 2nd month in a row based on higher projected exports. They peg wheat stocks at 2.4 MMT for 2016/17 versus 2.6 MMT last month. This would be a 3-year low and off from the 3.3 million mark last year.
In soybeans, traders will carefully scrutinize USDA demand data in the upcoming report. Projections put US carry-out for 2017 at 555 MB, up from the current year carry-out of 445 MB. Soybeans have been supported of late by slow farmer selling in Brazil. Even with a record large crop, farmers there have only sold 50% of their production, a number that is normally around 65% for this time of year.
For corn and wheat, traders expect both crops to see about a 200 MB drop in carry-out between old- and new-crop years. On wheat, USDA will be pegging the winter wheat crop from surveys for the first time this year. Analysts expect a 1,293 MB crop, off from 1,672 last year.
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