Can Export Sales Lift the Market

In the overnight session the grains traded higher with corn up 2 1/2 cents, soybeans up 8 1/4 cents and wheat up 2 1/4 cents. The U.S dollar is mostly unchanged this morning and crude oil has slipped 29 cents lower.

The EIA ethanol production numbers showed that last week’s production was the largest this marketing year. Weekly production increased 14,000 barrels per day to 994,000 BPD. Ethanol stocks dropped 878,000 barrels to 19.840 million barrels helping to paint a more bullish picture. This marketing year ethanol production is up 4.7 percent compared to 2013/14.

This week’s export sales report showed that wheat booked 434,300 metric tons which was on the high side of analyst expectations which ranged from 200,000-450,000. Soybean sales fell 11 percent compared to last week to 118,000 metric tons but was still within the range of analyst expectations. Corn sales declined 21 percent to 496,800 metric tons. This was below the analyst estimates that ranged from 500,000-700,000 metric tons.

New crop sales were strong for corn however, booking 297,500 metric tons which was above the 100,000-200,000 metric tons expected this week. Soybeans booked 202,500 metric tons to be delivered in the 2015/2016 marketing year.

—Cody Bills