Grains are mostly higher to close:

Corn + 11 1/4 cent/bu (May @ 5.57 3/4)

Soybeans + 24 cents/bu (May @ 14.16 1/4)

Chi Wheat – 3 1/2 cents/bu (May @ 6.27)

Currently:

Cdn $ +0.00015 (79.970 cents)

WTI Crude Oil +1.48/barrel (61.48)

Market news was quiet this afternoon as grains moved into the weekend focusing on the morning’s headlines.

Another day, another corn purchase. The USDA reported this morning that China bought 800,000 mt of corn for 2020/21 delivery. This brings the 4-day sales total to 3.9 million tonnes (153 million bushels), and total sales to 23.2 million mt (915 million bushels). This is the first day that corn markets have seemed to react to this bullish news the way we would expect, favorably.  In the face of this additional demand, economists including StoneX’s Arlan Suderman are increasing their corn export targets. Arlan increased his export target to 2.850 billion bushels (up from USDA’s 2.60 billion). If this is realized, ending stocks would drop to 1.336 billion or 9% of anticipated use. Even before the sales this week, U.S. corn export sales were already at 90% of the USDA’s forecast (69% 5-year average), so it is logical for traders to expect corn to surpass their originally stated export projections.

Soybeans toted up alongside corn, making up nearly all of yesterday’s losses. In contrast, wheat is suffering alone due to seasonal depression of bids, and good rains hitting the U.S. plains where a large portion of wheat is grown.

Drier weather in Brazil will help their soybean harvest progress, which will in turn fill the ships that are currently lined up. This is likely to negatively impact U.S. soybean sales as there is no reason to buy American if Brazil is cheaper, and now they are able to fill ships quicker.

Have a great, sunny weekend everybody!