- Another unexciting day leaving very little to say – so this will be brief!
- Grain markets drift on lack of news whilst soybean futures see some Chinese pricing business, which gives them a little support ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next week.
- US weekly export sales were larger than expected but insufficient to boost the market. Surprisingly Chinese buying was ahead of expectation despite cheaper S American supplies from March onwards. Statistics for the crop year to date show US wheat exports are 241 million bu off, corn down 512 million bu and 2014/15 soybean sales are up by 115 million bu.
- Brussels granted weekly wheat export licences totalling 729,656 mt, which brings the season to 20.164 million mt. This is 706,043 mt (3.6%) ahead of last year’s record pace.
- Finally, Brazil’s CONAB have estimated the soybean crop at a record large 94.6 million mt which is down 1.3 million mt from their previous estimate. This aligns well with the USDA’s latest 94.5 million mt estimate. The corn crop was estimated at 78.4 million mt, 700,000 mt lower. This is made up of an increased main crop but reduced safrinha (second) crop.