(Agriculture.com) – On Thursday, the CME Group’s corn, soybean and wheat markets ended mixed, despite the USDA releasing mostly stronger weekly export sales.
At the close, the March corn futures finished unchanged at $3.58. March soybean futures closed 2 1/4 cents higher at $8.82. March wheat futures ended 9 1/4 cents lower at $4.68 3/4. March soymeal futures settled $1.30 per short ton lower at $274.20. March soyoil futures closed $0.28 higher at $29.82. In the outside markets, the Brent Crude oil market is $0.99 higher per barrel, the U.S. dollar is higher, and the Dow Jones Industrials are 269 higher.
Dustin Johnson, EHedger LLC grain analyst, says that today’s action is weak.
“It is hard to comment on because there is really just nothing going on. Export sales really need to excite to try to reach the USDA demand estimates and we just don’t see that happening,” Johnson says.
In its weekly report, the USDA showed that corn exporters sold 669,200 metric tons to importers in the week that ended on Jan. 7, topping expectations of 400,000 to 650,000 tons. Sales jumped from the prior week were up 14% from the previous four-week average, the USDA said.
Soybean sales totaled 1.13 million tons, within the range of analyst estimates, rising 77% from the prior seven days and 13% from the average, the agency said.
Wheat sales totaled 274,700 tons, a vast improvement from the previous seven days, but still 3% lower than the prior four-week average.
