Corn

The weekly Crop Progress report indicates that the U.S. corn crop was 98% mature as of October 20, up from the 95% average. Harvest was reported at 65% complete, which is 13 percentage points ahead of the 5-year average pace.

The Export Inspections report released on Monday morning recorded 999,811 metric tons (39.36 million bushels) for the week ending October 17. This amount is more than double the same week last year and up 97.35% from the previous week. Of the total, 565,254 metric tons were shipped to Mexico, while 132,799 metric tons were on their way to Colombia. This brought the marketing year total to 5.795 million metric tons (228.14 million bushels), up 30.61% from the same week last year and the highest since the 2018/19 marketing year.

Brazil’s first corn crop is now 48% planted as of Thursday, according to AgRural.

The December 2024 contract settled at 426.25 cents per bushel, up 7.75 cents, which is an increase of 1.85%.

Wheat

Weekly Export Sales data is expected to show old crop wheat sales ranging from 250,000 to 550,000 metric tons for the week of October 31. For new crop sales, estimates range from 0 to 50,000 metric tons.

Ahead of the USDA's WASDE report on Friday, analysts surveyed by Reuters expect to see very little movement in the U.S. ending stocks projection this month at an average of 813 million bushels. The range of estimates is from 800 to 830 million bushels. World stocks for the 2024/25 projection are seen down 0.93 million metric tons to 256.79 million metric tons.

South Korea purchased a total of 100,000 metric tons of wheat, split evenly with 50,000 metric tons each from the U.S. and Australia in their tender on Wednesday.

The December wheat contract settled at 573.25 cents per bushel, up 4.5 cents, equivalent to an increase of 0.66%.

Soybeans

The average close for November soybean futures, which indicates the fall crop insurance price, so far this month is $10.28. This is $1.27 below the February base price.

NOPA will release their monthly crush report later this morning, with the trade looking for a total of 170.33 million bushels crushed by members during September. Soybean oil stocks are estimated at 1.083 billion pounds.

Chinese soybean imports in September totaled 11.37 million metric tons according to the country’s customs data, which was up 59% from the same month last year. Since January 1, their imports have totaled 81.85 million metric tons, 8.1% larger than the previous year.

AgRural estimates the Brazilian soybean crop to be 8.2% planted as of last Thursday, compared to 17% last year. Initial CONAB estimates released this morning show the 2024/25 soybean crop is estimated at 166.05 million metric tons. This is shy of the current USDA estimate of 169 million metric tons but up 18.67 million metric tons from their estimate for the 2023/24 crop.

The January 2025 soybean contract settled at 1003.75 cents per bushel, up 2.5 cents, equivalent to an increase of 0.2%.