By Kirk Maltais


Export sales of U.S. soybeans for the week ended Aug. 17 beat the high-end of expectations by surveyed analysts.

The Department of Agriculture reported in its weekly export sales rundown that 1.58 million metric tons of soybeans were sold in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 marketing years, beating the range of 800,000 tons to 1.3 million tons forecast by analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week.

Corn and wheat sales fell within analyst expectations, totaling 650,800 tons and 406,000 tons, respectively, across both marketing years. For corn, a net reduction of 22,700 tons for the 2022/23 year was logged, driven by cancellations by Colombia, El Salvador and other unknown destinations.

Unknown destinations were the leading buyer of U.S. soybeans for the week, while Mexico was the leading buyer of corn and Chile was the leading buyer of wheat. Traders often assume that China is the destination when the USDA reports "unknown destinations."

Grain futures trading on the CBOT are mixed premarket, with corn down 0.9%, soybeans up 0.2% and wheat down 0.6%.


To see related data, search "U.S. Export Sales: Weekly Sales Totals" in Dow Jones NewsPlus.


Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-24-23 0919ET