Friday August 9, 2024

• Wheat futures leading the push higher on continued declines in French crop
• Corn and beans are mostly flat this morning in anticipation of the USDA report Monday
• Dec24 corn and Nov24 bean contracts have posted fresh low closes yesterday
  • Markets pressured by increased farmer sales of old crop bushels, big US crops and lag in new crop export sales
  • Near record short positions 
• Excessive rainfall in parts of France and Germany
  • Strategies Grains dropped EU wheat production estimates
  • A sizeable cut was made to the French crop to 26.3MMT (down 25% from last year), the smallest crop since 1986 
  • Harvest has advanced in France to 88% complete
• Extreme rainfall has delayed Russian spring wheat harvest
• Cooler weather and frost in parts of Argentina also have traders thinking about the South American crop
• Export Inspections 
  • US old crop corn and soybean export sales improved last week, exceeding trade expectations.  This still leaves us behind the pace needed to meet the USDA estimates however, the deficit is shrinking
  • Wheat was within expectations and slightly ahead of the seasonal pace needed