Wheat manages to hold onto modest gains

Market News

Wheat manages to hold onto modest gains

Soybeans were modestly lower on fund and technical selling. It was an up and down day, with China and unknown destinations buying 2020/21 U.S. beans, the 13^th business day in a row with an announced sale. China bought 266,000 tons and unknown picked up 264,000, bringing the running total to 5,240,500 tons. Parts of Argentina are expected to see rain ahead of widespread planting, but portions of Brazil could remain dry, potentially limiting the planting of what’s currently expected to be a record crop, but activity is still faster than average. Argentina’s grain export group CIARA-CEC projects a 9.5% decline in crush volume for that nation because of higher taxes and slower grain movement. Argentina is the world’s biggest exporter of soybean products. Soybean meal was mixed on commercial bull spreading and bean oil was lower on technical selling.

Corn was steady to fractionally lower. China and unknown destinations bought 2020/21 U.S. corn, 140,000 and 320,000 tons, respectively, and the trade is also keeping an eye on planting conditions in South America and the potential impact on acreage. The U.S. harvest is 8% complete with warm, dry conditions expected in many areas through early October. The USDA’s next production estimate is out October 9^th, along with new supply and demand projections. Ethanol futures were steady to weak. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly ethanol production and supply numbers are out Wednesday.

The wheat complex was modestly higher on fund and technical buying, shrugging off a modestly higher move in the dollar index. Dry conditions are hampering planting in parts of the Black Sea region, but similar weather should help U.S. winter wheat planting and the spring wheat harvest is nearly over for the season. According to reports, Russia is expected to introduce grain export quotas for January through June to shore up feed supplies and limit domestic price inflation. DTN says Egypt is tendering for an unspecified amount of wheat, Pakistan is in the market for 300,000 tons of wheat, and Taiwan is looking for 91,300 tons of U.S. milling wheat, adding South Korea passed on offers following their tender for 70,000 tons of feed wheat. The European Union says soft wheat exports for the E.U. plus the United Kingdom since July 1^st are 4.14 million tons, 38% less than this time last year. Kazakhstan’s government held its grain and pulse production estimate steady at 18.2 million tons.