The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its weekly U.S. Export Sales Report on Thursday.
This week?s report was slightly bullish. Allendale commodity broker Greg McBride said the big surprise this week was the absence of old crop sales to China.
?Well, it was a neutral to bullish report- 1.175 mmt for corn, with all of that on the old crop side of the ledger,? McBride said. ?On beans, it was a bullish report at 1.977 mmt- 1.095 for the old crop and 881,000 tons for new crop. That was above the estimated range for new crop sales for soybeans, so that is a good look. We are starting to back things off a little bit when it comes to old crop sales, which is expected at this time of the year. The biggest surprise between the corn and the beans this week is that there were no old crop sales made to China. That is interesting because this is the time of the year where we would expect to see some of the last little bits trickle in for beans, but we should be seeing some old crop sales for corn starting to ramp up.?
McBride also provided some advice for farmers watching the markets.
?I would be a little bit concerned about the technical action in corn and wheat,? McBride said. ?You had an outside day down on Wednesday for corn and the Chicago and KC wheat contracts. Beans had a big move higher but finished well off those highs. That is something to be watching. If we start to show a little bit of weakness technically, it doesn?t matter if the production numbers are bullish- we could see this market at least have a correction. So, I continue to preach about making some old crop cash sales. Do that to get those averages up. Then, as we go into the planting season, we?ll be looking at, potentially, maybe another rally to give us an opportunity to make those final sales just based off of a weather rally here in the U.S.?
The team at Allendale can be reached by calling 800-262-7538, or you can visit allendale-inc.com.
