09/11/2023 Plenty of “Moving Parts” In Tomorrow’s U.S. and Global Balance Sheets Have Traders Rattled

On the Grains: Overnight action shows corn and beans steady to firm but wheat on the weak side as this goes to press. Weekend rains were minimal. Crop dry-down is only accelerating over two thirds of Midwest corn and beans as they gasped to an early end to their growing season. We’ll see weekly export inspections at 10 a.m. that could ripple prices briefly. But for the most part, expect low-volume trade and choppy action as traders nervously finish positioning for tomorrow’s WASDE update at 11 a.m. We detailed the unusually wide ranges of trade expectations for both U.S. and global ending stocks last week. Now all that remains is to see where USDA’s numbers fall within those ranges. Friday’s holiday-delayed weekly export sales weren’t bad at all for corn or soybeans. At 949,700 tonnes, corn sales were near the upper end of trade estimates ranging from 400K to 1 million tonnes. Ditto for soybeans. At 1.783 million tonnes, they too were near the upper end of guesstimates ranging from 1.4 million to 2 million tonnes. Soybean meal sales were especially impressive, coming in at 297,000 tonnes and above the 250K top end of estimates. Wheat export sales were barely…