It’s an extremely slow news morning for the grain markets, with corn, wheat and soybeans chopping around during the overnight session. Soybean oil traded modestly lower on Malaysian palm oil futures weakness overnight. NOPA’s monthly crush report will be out at 11:00 AM CT.
 The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange lowered their estimate of the Argentine wheat crop to 18.5 MMT from 18.8 MMT previously as the downward adjustments in crop ideas continue. They cited lower than expected yields from the 13% of the crop harvested so far as the reason for the latest reduction. Earlier in the week, the Rosario exchange lowered their estimate to 19.0 MMT from 20.0 MMT previously. USDA last estimated the crop at 20.0 MMT vs last year’s 19.5 MMT.
 France’s corn harvest is 85% complete, roughly a week behind average of 99% according to FranceAgriMer. Soft winter wheat planting is 72% complete vs 67% last week, but remains slower to usual and well behind last year’s 92% given the wet conditions this fall.
ï‚· There were no USDA sales announcements this morning.
ï‚· Egypt ended up buying 465k tonnes of wheat in their tender this week, with 345k tonnes Russian and 120k Ukrainian.
ï‚· Please see our Market Insights post at https://portal.rjobrien.com/MarketInsights/Blog/Read/38063 for details on the USDA Export Sales report.
ï‚· U.S. soybean sales were solid at 1.253 MMT (46.0 million bushels), down from the previous week’s 64.3 million bushels, but still good overall and within market expectations of 800k-1.4 MMT. This week’s activity included 625k tonnes in new sales reported for China specifically.
ï‚· U.S. corn sales of 582k tonnes (22.9 million bushels) were within market expectations of 400-800k tonnes, were up from the previous week’s 19.2 million and were actually the 2nd highest of the first 10 weeks of the 2019/20 marketing year, but were still 26% below the needed average weekly sales of 31.1 million bushels/week just to reach the USDA’s 1.850 billion bushel export projection. Sorghum saw 250k tonnes in sales to unknown this week, with total sales of 280k tonnes.
ï‚· U.S. wheat sales were quite disappointing at just 239k tonnes (8.8 million bushels), at the bottom of expectations of 200-500k tonnes, down from the previous week’s 13.2 mil bu, last year’s same-week sales of 16.1 mil bu and were the 2nd lowest of the 23 weeks of the 2019/20 marketing year so far.
ï‚· U.S. soybean meal sales last week were strong at 345k tonnes, at the top of market expectations of 100-350k tonnes, up from the previous week’s 262k tonnes and were the 2nd largest of the first six weeks of 2019/20. Soybean oil sales of 31k tonnes were slightly above the range of market ideas of 5-25k tonnes and were the best of the first six weeks of 2019/20.
 The average trade estimate of October soybean crush by NOPA members is 166.8 million bushels, with a wide range of ideas of 157.5- 173.0 million. The average estimate reflects an increase from Sept NOPA crush of 152.6 million, but is down 3.2% from last year’s 172.3 million bushels, which was not only the record for October, but also the all-time monthly record NOPA crush, as well. Sept NOPA crush was down 5.1% from last year. The average estimate of end October soybean oil stocks held by NOPA members is 1.420 billion pounds (1.329-1.500 billion range of ideas), which would be down from 1.442 billion pounds in September despite the expected solid increase in crush for the month. Despite the seasonal increase in soybean crush in October, a decline in soybean oil stocks in October has been a common occurrence of late, being seen in each of the last three years.
Weather Brazilian growing regions will see rains of 1-2†fall in the northern growing states of Mato Grosso, Goias and Minas Gerais in the next 5 days. Things look to be mainly dry elsewhere in the next 5 days. The 6-10 day sees rains of 1-2†to fall across areas north of Parana, with totals of .50- 1†south of Parana and limited rains for Parana. Argentine growing regions look to see rains of .50-1â€+ fall across most of Buenos Aries and southern Entre Rios by later in the weekend, with things mainly dry elsewhere. The 6-10 day indicates rains of .50-1â€, with areas of 1â€+ to fall in most of the Argentine growing regions. Temps will be running near average in most of the South American growing regions in the next 10 days.