Disappointing US sales and better weather in the Corn Belt pushed prices lower.
Corn prices suffered moderate losses in a somewhat choppy session, with rainy Midwestern forecasts spurring a round of technical selling.
Also soybean prices fell, but saw double-digit losses.
Traders, indeed, largely shrugged off two more flash sales that are bound for China and unknown destinations.
Wheat prices were mixed amid an uneven round of technical maneuvering.
Winter wheat contracts saw moderate losses on a round of technical selling spurred by rains in the Midwest and Plains, meanwhile spring wheat crop quality concerns kept those prices slightly in the green.
On macro markets, energy prices were lightly mixed.
Crude oil inched 0.1% higher to stay just above $73 per barrel.
Gasoline rose about 0.5%, while diesel saw fractional losses.
Meantime on Wall St., the Dow climbed 322 points higher to 34,196 on news that the Biden Administration has been making bipartisan strides on an infrastructure deal, which still needs to go through some final negotiations.
The U.S. Dollar firmed slightly.
Coming back on grains market, there are still some worries about spring wheat weather in the US and Canada.
Rain is forecast to hit parts of Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Montana into tonight.
Rain across the US central corn belt has started to fall, with the latest models in the 5-75 millimetres plus range for Illinois and northern Indiana, but dropping off further into Ohio and north-east Iowa.
Some slightly cooler temperatures and little rain is on the forecasts for next week.
In US export news, two new-crop soybean flashes have been reported, 132,000 tonnes to China and 260,000t to unknown.
Both sales are for delivery during the 2021/22 marketing year, which begins September 1.
US weekly export sales, meantime, saw wheat exports at 374,100 t within the range of expectations.
In corn, dirty exports standed at 216,300 t and in soybeans at 141,600 t.
Those levels are considered rather disappointing.
Corn export shipments slipped 7% below the prior four-week average .
Soybean export shipments inched 3% above the prior four-week average.
Wheat export shipments, meantime, were more robust last week.
In this context corn basis bids were steady to week across the central U.S., particularly at interior river terminals, which saw declines between 3 and 17 cents.
Soybean basis bids slid 1 to 8 cents lower at three interior river terminals, while holding steady elsewhere across the central U.S..
Other wise, the futures boards have started to square up positions in preparation for next week’s USDA US area and stocks reports as we look for the next big directional trade.
Following on the private estimates out yesterday, early news survey estimates on US area are coming in at just under 38 million hectares (Mha) on corn, and 36Mha on soybeans.
From South America, Brazil’s Agroconsult once again lowered its projection for the country’s 2020/21 second corn crop, trimming it by another 1.4% to 90.2 million tonnes as key production areas continue to struggle through drought stresses.
On European market, Euronext prices continued to deteriorate Thursday night in the wake of Chicago.
In fact, on Euronext, wheat prices are back in the support zone of € 200/205 / t in a context of promising harvest prospects, but on condition that the rains cease fairly quickly.
Rapeseed was also weighed down by the withdrawal of the Malaysian palm from the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
The country’s exports continue to slow down, as the country enters its seasonal peak of production, on the strength of favorable weather conditions.
The European Commission, meantime, has slighted lowering its wheat production estimate for the EU to 125.8 million tonnes from 126.2 estimated last month.
That will still be 7% better than the current year’s crop, if realized, due to an expected rise in total acres.
In this context, exports estimates at 30.0 million tonnes for the next campaign remained steady, against 27 million this year.
In barley, production is also revised down by 1 million compared to last month to 53.5 million tonnes.
For corn, the EU has an estimated production of 70.6 million tonnes and for rapeseed at 16.7 million tonnes, implying for the latter imports estimated at 6.2 million tonnes.
From Black Sea basin, harvest is still slowly picking up with generally satisfactory yields in this area, and warmer temperatures are helping to ripen some crops.
However, there is the chance of rain across Black Sea cropping areas on outlooks into mid-July.
At the beginning of the week, from the port of Taman, Russia loaded 28.5 Kt of wheat for Algeria.
The Russian Grain Quality Assessment Center inspected the loaded lot to ensure compliance with Algerian requirements.
The last shipment of Russian wheat to this destination was in 2016.
The Algerian public agency for the purchase of cereals (OAIC) last October revised its quality requirements for Russian wheat, in particular by increasing its tolerance for damage to the grain. ‘insects from 0.1 to 0.5%.
From Australia, local markets remained fairly quiet, and watching overseas boards and weather maps.
New South Wales yesterday had fairly widespread rain, with 10-20mm and more across parts of the central west as forecast.
Next week’s maps are taking a turn back to the drier side, with only a few coastal storms forecast, and not much on the 14-day outlook.
On the international scene, the International Grains Council has increased its world newc-crop corn estimate by 9 million tonnes (Mt), to 1201Mt, thanks to an upward revision of its estimate for China to 272.8 million tonnes.
Meantime, has trimmed its global wheat estimate by 1Mt to 789Mt.
Turkey is said to have bought around 320,000 t of optional feed barley, delivery between 2 and 18 July.
Japan purchased 5.9 million bushels of food-quality wheat from the United States and Canada in a regular tender that closed earlier today.
Of the total, 54% was sourced from the U.S. The grain is for shipment in August.
Egypt, one of the world’s largest wheat importers, has sufficient stockpiles to last for more than six months, per the country’s supply ministry.
Vegetable oil reserves are also good for 5.3 months, according to supply minister Ali Moselhy.
