Grains dipped lower in the night trade after taking a breather from the two-day rally that pushed soybean prices to their highest level in a month. Going into the morning break, soybeans were down 5, corn was down 1 and wheat was fractionally higher.
Wet weather continues to be a concern for the markets as soybean planting still needs to be completed in some areas where excessive moisture is present. Also, soggy fields are taking a bit of a toll on the crop health with the condition of the US corn crop slipping 1 percent last week and soybean condition dipped 2 percent. The remnants of Tropical Storm Bill are expected to push through southern Missouri, Illinois and Indiana over the next few days bringing as much as 3 to 5 inches of precipitation to already soaked fields. However, once this system blows through temperatures are expected to rise and precipitation should be limited.
On the river systems, high water is causing issues with barge traffic and the result has been a sharp increase in barge costs. In ethanol news, output for the week was off 12,000 barrels per day to 980,000 barrels per day but the big change was a large jump in ethanol stocks, which were up 472,000 barrels to 20.72 million barrels, the highest point since May 1.
Export sales this morning were mostly on par with expectations. Wheat sales for the new-crop marketing year came in at 315,700 MT versus trade estimates of 200,000 to 400,000 MT. Old-crop corn totaled 627,000 MT as compared to the trade estimate range of 400,000 to 600,000 and new-crop sales were 200,400 MT versus trade estimates of 50,000 to 200,000 MT. New-crop soybeans were well above expectations with 532,000 MT while analysts expected only 150,000 to 350,000 MT but old-crop sales came in at the low end of expectations at 132,900 MT versus trade estimates of 100,000 to 250,000 MT.