US corn futures saw some nice gains, but more so soybeans. The punters are calling the predicted heatwave in the states the key driver there. One might get on board if it wasn’t for the fact a lot of the corn, and soybeans, are sitting in mud. In some cases lots and lots of mud, for beans, possibly too much mud.
Weekly export sales for US corn were 1.479mt of combined old and new crop, not bad but not a lot more than mid way between the highest and lowest estimates from the trade leading up to the release of the data. Soybean sales were better at 1.357mt for old and new crop combined, just under the trade estimate of 1.5mt for top side expectations.
US weekly wheat export sales were 505kt, just under the high end of expectations. US cash wheat values out of the Pacific Northwest were flat to AUD$4.00 firmer on yesterdays conversions. Into the Asian consumer market, US milling wheat is roughly US$2.50 cheaper than Russian milling wheat, and US$6.50 cheaper than Aussie milling wheat. This should continue to see US sales data remain healthy going forward.
French milling wheat shed some value on the FOB cash market. Compared to yesterday’s conversion it’s back AUD$7.61/t. Both London feed wheat futures and Paris milling wheat futures shed value. The Dec 2026 slot for Paris milling wheat closing E3.00/t lower. Paris milling wheat has slowly declined since setting a high on hot / dry weather concerns on Wednesday morning. This is more of an issue for German and Polish wheat then French wheat. It is of a major concern for spring sown crops in Europe, mainly corn. Parts of SW Germany saw the mercury to 37C yesterday. NE Germany and Poland missed the worst of the heat. The mercury topping out around 25-28C across those regions.
Hot dry weather across southern France and Italy is seeing harvest of wheat and durum progress quickly there.
The attention will be on wheat crop ratings for northern Europe, and quality ratings for US soybeans and corn next week. The US isn’t really having an issue, 35C isn’t that unusual for the corn belt in the middle of summer, and the crops are generally in pretty good shape going into the heat.