By Kirk Maltais
--Wheat for December delivery fell 0.8%, to $5.94 1/2 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, with grain traders left uninspired by middling export sales reported this morning.
--Corn for December delivery fell 0.7%, to $4.82 1/2 a bushel.
--Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.3%, to $13.65 a bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
No Surprises: Export sales of U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat fell within the forecasts of analysts surveyed by Dow Jones, which didn't move the needle much for grain futures. The USDA said sales of corn in 2023/24 for the week ended Aug. 31 totaled 949,700 metric tons, soybeans came to 1.78 million tons and wheat sales tallied 370,300 tons. However, a lack of carryover sales from the previous marketing year was unexpected.
What Shortage?: Hot and dry weather is affecting grains on their way to harvest, but for soybeans the effect from ample global supplies may mitigate a U.S. crop shortfall. "The U.S. supply outlook is very tight after the hot/dry finish to the growing season, but the market also knows there will be a lot of beans entering the pipeline over the next month as harvest picks up and producers have a greater tendency to sell beans at harvest," said Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives in a note. Soybeans were under pressure earlier, before finishing the day higher.
Divided View: Traders were hesitant to take bold bets ahead of the WASDE report's release next week, keeping trading volumes light. The effect of scorching heat on maturing U.S. crops continued to drive the price debate in grains today, with observers split over the extent of crop damage. Outlooks published by outlets like Allendale and StoneX differed over the size of lost yields or production due to the hot weather. In surveys released Thursday, analysts asked by The Wall Street Journal put expected corn production at 14.99 million bushels, with a yield of 173.3 bushels an acre, and soybeans at 4.14 billion bushels, with a yield of 50 bushels an acre.
INSIGHT
More Filling: A survey of winter wheat being harvested in Kansas shows that test weights are below where they were at this time last year, but the amount of protein in the wheat is up from the average of the past 10 years. In a report Friday, the USDA said that protein content of the sampled wheat average 13%, up 1 point from last year, and up 1.1 points from the 10-year average of 11.9%. The survey, which sampled over 4,900 plants, showed an average test weight of 60.6 pounds per bushel, versus 61 pounds per bushel in 2022 and an average of 60.7 pounds per bushel over the past 10 years.
Food Prices Stay Costly: Food prices fell in August as a strong supply of wheat, corn and other key foodstuffs helped to lower global food commodity prices, but risks remain for rice, the cost of which jumped after the introduction of Indian export restrictions, the FAO of the United Nations said Friday. The FAO's food price index, which tracks global prices for a basket of staple foods, averaged 121.4 points in August, down 2.1% from July, putting prices 24% lower than the March 2022 peak. The Rome-based body said that much of the decline was led by lower dairy and vegetable oil prices helping to ease inflation worries for policy makers.
AHEAD
--The USDA will release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Monday.
--The USDA will release its weekly crop progress report at 4 p.m. ET Monday.
--The USDA will release its monthly world supply and demand report at noon ET Tuesday.
--Yusuf Khan contributed to this article.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-08-23 1547ET
