-Soybean sales announcements continue
-Funds likely nearing record net long in soybeans
-Wide-open harvest week ahead
Weak global equity markets and a wide-open harvest week ahead are providing a bit of negative influence to start the week for grains, but continued strong demand should underpin the markets. Corn harvest is expected to be around 13% complete in this afternoon’s update.
ï‚· USDA reported soybean sales this morning of 132k tonnes to China, 171k tonnes to unknown and 132k tonnes to Pakistan, all for 2020/21 delivery.
ï‚· Russian wheat prices continue to rise with 12.5% protein Black Sea export values up anywhere from $6-$11/tonne over the last week at $228-$235/tonne fob. Russian farmers are said to be in no hurry to sell wheat at the moment, with those who also produce sunflower preferring to sell that crop as it is currently experiencing record high prices.
 Early 2021/22 U.S. acreage ideas from IHS Markit, formerly IEG Vantage, showed corn at 93.7 million acres vs this year’s USDAestimated 92.0 million, soybeans at 87.1 million vs this year’s 83.8 million, winter wheat at 30.9 million vs 30.55 million this year, other spring wheat at 12.95 million vs 12.2 million this year and durum at 1.5 million, unchanged from this year.
 Friday afternoon’s CFTC Disaggregated COT data for futures/options combined as of 9/15/20 showed funds net buyers of
soybeans on the week of 17.9k contracts, increasing their net long to 191.8k contracts and bringing their total net buying over
the last five weeks to 165k contracts. For reference, the record fund net long in soybeans is 254k contracts. Wire service
estimates funds were additional buyers of 50k contracts since last Tuesday and would put their net long around 240k contracts. Funds were net buyers of 25k contracts in corn to increase their net long to a still modest 59k contracts and have been net buyers over the last five weeks of 231k contracts. Additional fund buying since last Tuesday is estimated at around 40k contracts. Funds were net buyers of 11.6k contracts in soybean meal (net long 43.7k) and 9.3k soybean oil (net long
94.6k/record is 126.5k), as well as 1.3k contracts in KCBT wheat (net long 10.2k) and 1.9k MPLS wheat (net short 3.0k). Funds
were net sellers of 8.1k contracts CBOT wheat for the week and are net long a minor 15.1k contracts.
ï‚· Ukraine total grain stocks as of September 1 at large and medium-sized ag-related companies were 17.2 MMT vs 21.1 MMT a year ago, with wheat accounting for 12.6 MMT vs 15.3 MMT last year. Ukraine does not survey for grain stocks data held at onfarm locations.
ï‚· Malaysian palm oil/product exports during the Sept 1-20 period were 1.035 MMT, up nearly 10% from the same period in August of 946k tonnes.
 Saudi Arabia’s state grain buying agency SAGO bought 540k tonnes of optional-origin feed barley for Nov-Dec arrival at an
average price of $225.34/tonne c&f.
ï‚· Pakistan tendered for 300k tonnes of wheat for arrival by Jan 31, 2021 with offers due by Wednesday.
Weather
It was a dry weekend across the corn belt and expected to remain so over the week ahead, the only exception being remnants of tropical storm Beta bringing totals of .25†or less to the OH River Valley Thursday, while a few light showers also possible in MN and the northern 1/3 of IA Thursday, with totals generally under .20â€. The 6-10 day period sees a front to work through over the weekend and bring some rains with the GFS calling for .50-1â€+ in northeast IA, northeast IL and then most of MI, IN and OH, with totals of generally less than .50†in the rest of IL and the rest of the eastern ½ of IA. The GFS then sees dry weather for the rest of the region. The European sees totals of .50-1†in MN, northern IA, most of MI, IN and OH, with .25-.75†elsewhere. Temps over the next 5 days will run below average in most of the belt, but with no cold air threats with average temps for the 6-10 day period.