-US corn conditions better than expected
-HRW/SRW conditions remain strong, while white/HRS struggle
-Brazil May soybean exports record high for the month
-Argentine farmer soybean sales remain slow vs last year
NOTE: Due to Monday’s holiday, the EIA’s weekly energy/ethanol data will be released on Thursday, while Export Sales will be out on Friday. The CFTC COT data will still be released on Friday as usual. Forecasts for hot/dry conditions over the next week across much of the U.S. remain supportive. Malaysian palm oil futures were up more than 5% overnight.
 Yesterday afternoon’s USDA Crop Progress update reported the first nationwide corn crop conditions of the season at 76%
good/excellent, solidly above wire service-reported average expectations of 70% g/e, slightly better than last year’s same-week rating of 74% g/e and the 2nd best late May rating since 2014. Corn planting was put at 95% complete and was the USDA’s last update for the year. Soybean planting is 84% complete, a bit less than average expectations of 87%, but remains well ahead of 67% average and 74% last year. The first soybean condition report will be issued next week.
 U.S. spring wheat crop conditions slipped 2% g/e last week to 43% g/e and compare very unfavorably to last year’s 80% g/e in last May and remain the 2nd lowest on record, below only 1988.
 Estimated hard red winter wheat crop conditions improved solidly by 3% g/e last week, while soft red winter conditions improved 1% and white wheat conditions continue to deteriorate, falling another 5% g/e. Overall, HRW and SRW conditions are at season-high levels, with HRW now unchanged from last year and SRW the 2nd best on record since we’ve been calculating by-class conditions back to 1999. Conversely, winter white wheat conditions are the lowest on record since 1999.
 Please see our Market Insights post at https://portal.rjobrien.com/MarketInsights/Blog/Read/44067 for full details of yesterday’s Crop Progress report.
 Brazilian official trade data for May showed soybean exports were 16.4 MMT, easily a record for the month in beating last year’s 14.1 MMT, while declining only modestly from 17.4 MMT in April. Feb-May marketing year-to-date exports of 49.9 MMT compare to 44.7 MMT last year. Corn exports in May were a miniscule 14k tonnes vs 25k tonnes last year and were the lowest for the month since 2005. March-May marketing year-to-date exports of 437k tonnes compare to 503k last year
ï‚· The Argentine Ag Secretary estimates farmer soybean sales at 20.0 MMT, up 606k tonnes in the last week, but remain behind year ago sales at this point of 23.8 MMT. New crop sales have reached 616k tonnes, nearly double early sales last year. Current year corn sales reached 28.6 MMT and remain solidly ahead of sales last year of 25.4 MMT.
 POET bought all of Flint Hills Resources’ ethanol assets, in six ethanol plants in Iowa and Nebraska, as well as two terminals in Texas and Georgia. The move increases POET’s annual ethanol production capacity by 40% to 3.0 billion gallons.
 Rabobank sees Australian wheat area rising 3% from last year to 13.3 million hectares (32.9 mil acres), comparable to USDA ideas, and with early favorable planting/growing conditions, along with encouraging precip expectations for season, they see total wheat production around 28.9 MMT, down from last year’s record 33.0 MMT crop, but would still the 4th largest on record and solidly above USDA’s current 27.0 MMT estimate. They see 2021/22 Australian wheat exports around 20 MMT vs 22.0 MMT for old crop and remaining sharply above the prior 3 years’ drought-afflicted 10.6 MMT average. Canola area is estimated to jump 14% to 2.7 mil hectares (6.7 mil acres), allowing for production around 3.1 MMT, but a pullback from last year’s phenomenal yields would still leave the crop below last year’s 4.0 MMT.
Weather
Precip over the last 24 hours included .25-1.5†with 20% corn belt coverage (primarily southeast), while the Central/Southern Plains saw .25-1.25†rains 25% coverage (E. CO, W. KS, TX panhandle), while the Northern Plains were dry.
Brazil remains locked in drought conditions in many areas, with virtually no precip in the 10-day forecast for Mato Grosso.