It was quiet in the corn market Thursday as traders squared their positions getting ready for the USDA Quarterly Stocks report at 11 this morning. The average trade guess is 1.754 billion bushels compared to last year at 1.731 billion bushels. Weekly Export sales were called disappointing at 22.6 million bushels. However, that was what we need each week to meet the USDA projection for the year. I did read that as harvest advances the basis is getting softer.

Beans traded about unchanged most of the day Thursday but then firmed up going into the close, posting gains of 3-4 cents a bushel. Export sales for the week were huge at 62.2 million bushels. But, with harvest advancing on an anticipated record crop traders pretty much ignored the export sales. In addition, the USDA announced a daily sale of 4.4 million bushels of beans to China. For the USDA Quarter Stocks report, the average trade guess is 201 million bushels, which compares to 191 million bushels last year.

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