Grains are higher in overnight trading:
Corn + ½ cent/bu (Sept @ 3.16 ¼ )
Soybeans + 4 ¼ cents/bu (Nov @ 8.92 ½ )
Chi Wheat + 3 ½ cents/bu (Sept @ 5.33)
Cdn $ +0.00060 (74.465 cents)
WTI Crude Oil +0.36/barrel (40.28)
Grain futures have been solidly higher all night as enthusiasm over a large USDA Weekly Export Sales Report yesterday, and new reports of Chinese buying have allowed grains to regain some of their earlier losses. After a two day hiatus, the Chinese were back in a big way yesterday. Weekly export sales showed new crop bean sales of 123 million bushels, almost double what most analysts were predicting.
Yesterday, the USDA announced a flash sale of corn to China for 76 million bushels, the 3rd largest such sale EVER. Initially, corn futures rallied 3 cents per bushel on the news, before falling back to end the day just slightly higher. Corn is showing modest strength on hopes for more such business to develop, although we would likely need to see 4 or 5 sales like this to make a material difference to the anticipated growth in ending stock levels.
Weather forecasts continue to show excellent moisture probabilities with seasonal to cool temperatures for the USA Midwest through the middle of August.