-Argentine crop estimates held steady, soybean harvest essentially complete
-Malaysian palm oil stocks seen at 6-month high
-Malaysia sets all palm oil export taxes at zero
-USDA reports soybean sales to unknown
 The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange left their estimates of the Argentine crop unchanged in this week’s bulletin with soybeans at 49.5 MMT (USDA 51.0 MMT) and corn at 50.0 MMT (USDA 50.0 MMT). Harvest of the soybean crop is essentially complete at 99%, while corn harvest is 56% complete. Wheat planting jumped to 30% complete over the last week from 13% a week earlier. Widespread rains across the belt are expected this weekend, which will likely slow planting activity next week but are beneficial in the big picture.
ï‚· The Malaysian Palm Oil Board will release their monthly report on June 10. The average estimate of Malaysian palm oil
production in May is 1.705 MMT (1.620-1.820 MMT range of ideas) vs 1.653 MMT in April and above last year’s May production
of 1.653 MMT. End May palm oil stocks are estimated at a 6-month high of 2.247 MMT (2.150-2.435 MMT range) and would be
up from 2.045 MMT in April, but still modestly below last year’s May stocks of 2.447 MMT. May palm oil exports are estimated at 1.323 MMT (1.259-1.380 MMT range) vs 1.236 MMT in April, but sharply below last year’s 1.715 MMT.
ï‚· Following a previous move to lower the crude palm oil export tax to zero, Malaysia announced the export tax for crude palm kernel oil and processed palm kernel oil will also be lowered to zero for July through December in an attempt to spur an increase in exports. The tax exemption for crude palm oil will remain in place throughout the period, as well. Some feel the move could result in increased exports of around 1 MMT as Malaysian supplies are now around $15/tonne cheaper than Indonesian.
 French soft wheat crop conditions were unchanged this week at 56% good/excellent but remain sharply below last year’s 80% g/e rating and are the lowest in nine years. Widespread good rains were seen this week, which broke the prolonged stretch of hot, dry conditions, but are likely too late for the wheat crop to see much improvement. Corn conditions improved to 85% g/e from 83% last week and compares to 82% last year. Corn planting is essentially complete at 97%.
ï‚· USDA reported the sale of 258k tonnes of soybeans to unknown this morning, with 60k tonnes of 2019/20 and 198k for 2020/21. There was also a separate, oddly-worded announcement of 330k tonnes of soybeans to unknown (196k tonnes old crop/134k new crop), as well, but may be inclusive of previously-announced activity.
ï‚· APK-Inform sees the Ukrainian sunseed crop at 16.0-16.2 MMT vs 15.5 MMT previously and 15.5 MMT last year.
Weather
Rains of .50-1â€, isolated to 1â€+ fell across the northern ¼ of IA, with totals of .25-.75†in MO, the southern 1/3 of IL, southern ½ of IN and most of OH. Totals of .20-.60†fell in MN, with conditions dry elsewhere. Mostly quiet conditions are expected across the belt through Monday and then the remnants of tropical system Cristobal will interact with a cold front moving in from the NW to produce a swath of rains of 1-2â€+ across the eastern ½ of MO, IA and MN as well as the western ½ of IL and most of WI by Tuesday. In the 6-10 day period, rains of .40-1†will fall across eastern IL, as well as most of MI, IN and OH on Wednesday, as the front finishes up working through. Dry conditions return for Thursday through the weekend. Temps look to run above average in all of the region for the next 5 days and then will cool some to average for the 6-10 period, while the 11-16 day period shows average to slightly above average temps and average to slightly below average precip.