By Kirk Maltais


Inspections of U.S. grain exports have pulled back this week, hitting the brakes on an improved pace of shipments reported last week by the Department of Agriculture.

In its latest grain export inspections report for the week ended May 4, the USDA said corn export inspections totaled 963,351 metric tons, which is down from 1.52 million tons inspected last week. Meanwhile, soybean inspections totaled 394,755 tons and wheat inspections totaled 209,138 tons, both down from the previous week.

Totals for inspections fell below the expectations of analysts, said Terry Reilly of Futures International in a note following the report's release. Additionally, China fell off of being the top destination for U.S. corn and soybeans, which traders regard as a bad sign for export demand.

Grain futures trading on the CBOT have turned lower in morning trading. Most-active corn futures are down 0.1%, soybeans are down 0.4% and wheat is down 0.7%.


To see related data, search "USDA Grain Inspections for Export in Metric Tons" in Dow Jones NewsPlus.


Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-08-23 1211ET