-USDA reports another large new crop corn sale to China
-Wheat tour this week
-Brazilian soybean export line-up shows vessels to U.S.
-NOPA crush report at 11:00 AM CT
-U.S. weather outlook mostly favorable
 According to Brazilian shipping group Cargonave, a total of 208k tonnes of Brazilian soybeans have been shipped or will ship shortly destined for the U.S., including 145k tonnes to sail in the coming days. Official trade data through March showed total imports so far of 174k tonnes (6.4 million bushels), with none from Brazil during the Sept-March period. The USDA’s 2020/21 import estimate of 35 million bushels equates to roughly 950k tonnes.
ï‚· USDA reported the sale of 1.700 MMT of new crop, 2021/22, corn to China this morning, as well as 128k tonnes of new crop corn to Mexico, as well. This brings total reported new crop corn sales to China so far to 6.8 MMT.
 One of China’s largest pig producers said they ran soybean meal inclusion in feed rations at only 9.8% in 2020, sharply below the industry standard of 18%, reducing soybean consumption by 68 pounds/pig and could reduce nationwide soybean usage by 20 MMT annually if adopted unilaterally.
 U.S. corn planting progress is expected to be 83-85% in this afternoon’s update vs 68% average, soybeans 57-58% vs 37% avg and spring wheat around 85% vs 71% avg.
 The Wheat Quality Council’s annual crop tour is this week, getting underway tomorrow with final estimates to be released on Thursday.
 Ukraine’s state meteorology office said weather conditions during the first half of May were favorable for crop development, with winter and spring crops said to be in good condition.
ï‚· APK-Inform maintained their Ukrainian crop estimates at 35.7 MMT corn (USDA 37.5 MMT/30.3 MMT last year) and 27.6 MMT wheat (USDA 29.0 MMT/24.9 MMT last year).
ï‚· An association representing roughly 40k gas stations in Brazil asked the government to lower the ethanol blending requirement to 18% from the current 27% due to the reduced ethanol production situation this year.
ï‚· South Korea bought 263k tonnes of optional-origin corn on Friday, all for September arrival, and priced from $331.99-$337.12/tonne c&f.
ï‚· On Friday, the Mississippi River was fully re-opened for barge navigation without restriction at Memphis following the closure due to major cracking found on the I-40 bridge.
 During the session on Friday, IHS Markit (formerly Informa) updated U.S. crop acreage ideas, reflecting sharply higher corn area expectations, as well as soybean area still above USDA’s March estimate. Specifically, they put U.S. corn planted area at 96.8 million acres, sharply above USDA’s March estimate of 91.1 million, last year’s 90.8 million and their own estimate previously at 94.3 million. They lowered their soybean area estimate to 88.5
million acres from 89.7 million previously, but remain above USDA’s March estimate of 87.6 million and up from last year’s 83.1 million. “Other spring†wheat area was estimated at 11.6 million acres vs USDA’s 11.7 million acre estimate in March and 12.25 million last year, while durum was estimated at 1.540 million acres, in line with USDA’s March estimate and compares to 1.684 million last year. They put all cotton area at 11.7 million acres vs 11.8 million previously, USDA’s March estimate of 12.0 million and last year’s 12.1 million.
 Friday afternoon’s CFTC Disaggregated COT data, for the week ended 5/11/21, showed funds sizable net sellers in corn of 56k contracts, reducing their net long to 316k contracts, the lowest since mid-December, while reflecting the largest net selling week since August 2019. Funds were small net buyers in soybeans of 3k contracts (net long 177k), 2k CBOT wheat (net long 13k) and 15.5k SBM (net long 70k). Only minor net fund activity was seen in SBO, KCBT and MPLS wheat.
ï‚· Today at 11:00 AM CT, NOPA will release their monthly soybean crush report. The average estimate of April soybean crush by NOPA members is 168.7 million bushels (162.8-172.0 million range of ideas) vs 178.0 million in March and 171.8 million bushels last year April. The average estimate of end April soybean oil stocks held by NOPA members is 1.785 billion pounds (1.682-1.850 billion range of ideas), up slightly from March stocks of 1.771 billion, but solidly below year ago April stocks of 2.111 billion pounds.
Weather
While the rain forecast for Mato Grosso remains quite limited, Parana and MGDS look more active over the next two weeks. The question is whether the rains are coming too late to reverse declining yield prospects or will only help stabilize the crop at this point. Excellent rains were seen across the Southern Plains over the weekend with widespread 1â€+ amounts for all of KS, as well as much of TX and OK. Good rains were also seen across NE, much of IA, MO and IL, as well.