Grains closed higher on Thursday:

Mar Corn + 5 ½ cents/bu (5.91 ¼ )

Jan Soybeans + 14 ¾ cents/bu (12.77 ¼ )

Mar Chi Wheat + 14 ½ cents/bu (7.70 ½ )

Cdn $ +0.00440 (78.145 cents)

WTI Crude Oil +1.13/barrel (72.00)

Grain futures had a good day today, as a number of factors led to traders wanting to own grains.  Inflationary price concerns have been long talked about as a reason for commodities, and grains to rally, as owning commodities is traditionally a good hedge against inflation.  Today, we had additionally fundamentally positive news in a very good USDA Weekly Export Sales Report, confirmation that over 50% of the USA hard red winter crop was adversely affected by yesterday’s wicked winds which blanketed the southern Plains, and by confirmation in yesterday’s NOPA October crush report that USA soyoil stocks are being drawn down quicker than expected as the first of the new generation of renewable fuel plants begin to open.  The USDA also confirmed a Flash Export sale of 20,000 tonnes of soyoil to India this morning.

This morning, the USDA released it’s Weekly Export Sales Report, with sales for the week ended Thursday, December 9^th coming in at or above the high end of trade expectations.  Exporters sold 76.7 million bushels of old crop corn last week and 29.7 million bushels of new crop corn.  Mexico was responsible for all of the new crop corn buying and for 2/3 ‘s of the old crop purchases as well, with Canada being the second largest buyer.  Corn sales year to date are now 197 million bushels ahead of the pace needed to hit the current USDA target.  Exporters sold 53.2 million bushels of soybeans of which 36.2 million bushels were taken by China.  Wheat sales were a 2021/22 marketing year high, led by purchases from Mexico and Japan.  Actual sales are listed below (in thousands of tonnes):

On the day Thursday, funds were believed to have been buyers across the board, picking up an estimated 6,000 corn contracts (now long 330,000), 10,000 soybean contracts (now long 62,000), and 10,000 Chicago wheat contracts (now short 22,000).

Locally, producers were good sellers today of old crop corn and soybeans, as the bean price spiked over 16 dollars per bushel, with off farm summer 2022 bids hitting $16.50/bu.  New crop harvest 2022 bean bids also broke through $15.50/bu again today, with light selling at those levels, but lots of Grain Pricing Orders being placed at $15.75 and $16.00 for harvest movement.