-Brazil Dec corn export ideas raised
-Cattle on Feed report Friday
-No USDA sales announcements
-Ukraine Dec weather non-threatening
-Indonesia considers lower biodiesel usage target
 Brazilian ag exporter association Anec sharply raised their estimate of corn exports in December to 4.46 MMT from 2.92 MMT previously, which would be modestly above last year’s Dec exports of 4.16 MMT and the 2nd highest on record for the month behind 2015’s 6.27 MMT. Brazil exported 4.9 MMT of corn in November. Based on Anec’s Dec estimate, Mar-Dec marketing year to date corn exports of 31.8 MMT compare to 37.3 MMT last year. Anec still sees virtually no Brazilian soybean exports in December, estimated at a mere 93k tonnes vs 1.5 MMT in Nov and 3.3 MMT last year.
 USDA’s monthly Cattle on Feed report will be out Friday afternoon. The average trade estimate of cattle on feed as of December 1 is 100.0% of last year (99.1-100.8 range of ideas) vs 101.3 last month and would be the first month not above year ago levels, if verified, in five months. November placements are estimated at 91.4 (85.5-95.2 range) and follows October placements which were also notably below year ago levels at 89.0. November marketings are estimated at 98.4 (97.2-102.3 range) vs 99.9 in October.
ï‚· There were no USDA sales announcements this morning.
 Ukraine’s state meteorological agency said weather conditions for winter crops have been non-threatening so far in December. Given the considerable dryness head into, and during much of the planting season, though, Ukraine estimates winter wheat planted area declined considerably to 6.1 million hectares (15.1 mil acres) from 6.65 mil hectares (16.4 mil acres) last year. Ukraine does not produce hardly any spring wheat (typically less than 200k hectares), so unlike Russia, when winter wheat acreage is reduced, there is essentially no opportunity to boost overall wheat production via spring wheat for Ukraine.
ï‚· Indonesia is considering lowering the 2021 biodiesel consumption target to 8.5 million kiloliters (2.25 billion gallons) from the current 9.2 mil kl (2.43 bil gal) target citing a more cautious fuel consumption outlook for the coming year. However, this would still be up considerably from estimated 2020 biodiesel consumption of 7.2 mil kl (1.90 bil gal). Indonesia is looking to expand domestic biodiesel consumption through 2025 by 2.9% annually on average.
 Australia filed a formal appeal with the WTO over China’s issuance of heavy import tariffs on barley, which have fully halted barley exports to China accordingly. China typically accounts for around 70% of total Australian barley exports, while this year’s situation is exacerbated even further given the significant increase in barley production to around 12 MMT from 9.0 MMT last year and the 2nd highest on record. However, any resolution from the WTO action can take years.
 Egypt ended up buying 235k tonnes of wheat following Monday’s tender, 120k Romanian at $283.43/tonne c&f ($270.96 fob) and 115k tonnes Ukrainian at $282.31-$283.33 c&f ($268.98 fob). This was up $7-$8/tonne from the previous purchase on Dec 1.
Weather
Rains of .25-.75†fell across around 45% of Mato Grosso, Sao Paulo and northeast MGDS, with the rest of Brazilian growing areas dry yesterday. Rains of generally less than .50†will fall in the southern 2/3 of Mato Grosso and the northeast ½ of MGDS in the next 5 days, with totals of .50-1.5â€+ in the rest of the Brazilian growing regions. A widespread event remains on tap for the 6-10 day period with .75-1.5â€+ expected for most crop areas. Temps are expected to be below average south and above average north over the next 10 days. In Argentina, few light showers brought generally less than .25†to far northern Buenos Aries and the far southern sections of Santa Fe and Entre Rios yesterday, with other areas dry. Mainly dry weather looks to dominate most of the Argentine growing regions through most of Friday and then a front will work through late Friday into Saturday providing good, widespread rains of .75-1.5â€+ with coverage of around 90-95%. The 6-10 day period looks mostly dry once again. Temps are expected to run below average through the coming 10-day period.