Boy, just when it would appear that corn got its mojo back, wham, somebody throws a monkey wrench into the gears. This morning, that somebody was the weekly export sales report. For the week ending September 9th, sales of corn tallied just 246,600 MT or 9.7 million bushels. Mexico accounted for 63% or 154.3k MT of this total, followed by unknown destinations taking 75.2k and then Canada with 15.1k. Not exactly what you want to see for the second week of the marketing year. Granted, this is only one week, and I continue to believe that corn has already established a seasonal low. Still, we will obviously need something more positive than this on the demand front to extend this initial rally.
In turn, wheat sales set a new marketing year high of 617,100 MT or 22.7 million bushels. Nigeria was the big player here, accounting for 54% of the total or 328.9k MT, followed by Mexico buying 78.3k and then South Korea in for 69.1k. Beans sales were towards the upper end of expectations, but by no means surprising at 1,264,200 MT or 46.5 million bushels. China took 75% of the total with purchases of 945.2k MT, and unknown destinations were in for 163k MT (13%). From there, the quantities drop off quite rapidly—Egypt for 80k, Taiwan 20.5k, and Indonesia 16k. Without China, we have nothing to speak of. In the meats, beef sales snapped back last week with a total of 15,300 MT. This was up 23% from the previous week. Japan and South Korea were the largest buyers, 6,000 MT, and 5,000 MT, respectively, and China was in for 1,400 MT. Pork sales dipped 25% for the week coming through at 25,300 MT. China was still on the list with a purchase of 1,800 MT.
On the weather front, outside of those in the South and Southeast who are experiencing the aftereffects of Nicolas, the outlook is generally dry and warm. Temperatures are expected to become more seasonal after the weekend, and harvest progress should begin to accelerate.
After encouraging news, a week ago, the weekly initial jobless claims went the wrong direction as they climbed 22,000 to 332,000. Economists were looking for the figure to have risen 10,000.
Finally, this morning, in another possible sign that the bloom has really faded from the commodity blossom, gold has taken a sharp hit. While we have not pushed into overall lower lows as of yet, it would appear that bulls, who have tried several times this summer to rally the troops, have now decided to head for the exits.
In the rest of the macros this morning, we find energies, financial instruments, and equities all under pressure, and the dollar strong.