By Kirk Maltais
Export sales of U.S. wheat landed on the low end of estimates from analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal, while high new crop sales buoyed corn and soybeans.
In its weekly report Thursday, the Department of Agriculture reported that export sales of wheat in the 2024/25 marketing year totaled 309,300 metric tons. That's down 47% from the previous week, and down 46% from the average of the past four weeks, the USDA reports. Surveyed analysts had forecast sales to land anywhere from 300,000 tons to 625,000 tons.
Corn and soybean sales both landed within analyst estimates for the week, with strong sales of crops for the 2024/25 marketing year offsetting weak sales of 2023/24 crops. Corn sales totaled 1.08 million tons across both marketing years, while soybeans totaled 918,300 tons.
Following the release of the weekly numbers, the USDA reported a new flash sale of 264,000 tons of soybeans to unknown destinations for delivery in the 2024/25 marketing year. The designator "unknown destinations" is typically regarded as China by traders and analysts.
Grain futures on the Chicago Board of Trade are mixed pre-market, with most-active corn up 0.3%, soybeans up 0.2%, and wheat down 0.9%.
To see related data, search "U.S. Export Sales: Weekly Sales Totals" in Dow Jones NewsPlus.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-25-24 0940ET
