Market Report: Corn Weaker, Beans Higher

Corn saw a fairly tight trading range again Thursday and closed at the lower end with losses of 2-3 cents a bushel. Weekly export sales were called disappointing at 703,500 MT for 2016-17 and 21,100 MT for 2017-18. The National Weather Service forecast is calling for above-normal temperatures and normal to above-normal precipitation. There are reports of ear and stalk rots showing up because of all the rain but this does not seem to be a concern of traders.

After losses earlier in the week, beans had a pretty good day Thursday with gains of 6-8 cents a bushel. Beans also closed at the upper end of the daily trading range. The weekly export sales report from the USDA saw another good number at just over 1 MMT. In addition the USDA announced a daily sale of 110,000 MT of 2017-17 beans were sold to an unknown destination. The NOPA crush for August was at 131.82 million bushels. That was 4.4 million bushels below trade expectations. However, they did not report the important number. What was the crush last August?