US: Corn eases, wheat firms

The newest batch of grain export inspection data from USDA, out Monday morning and covering the week through August 19, held mixed but mostly positive data for traders to digest. Wheat was the week’s clear winner, trending 17% higher and exceeding the entire range of trade guesses. Corn slipped slightly lower, meantime, with soybeans facing a moderate decline week-over-week. Both grains stayed near the middle of analyst estimates, however. Corn export inspections reached 28.5 million bushels last week, which was down 7% from a week ago. That was also near the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 19.7 million and 37.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year remain well ahead of last year’s pace, with 2.563 billion bushels. China was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 13.4 million bushels. Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama rounded out the top five. Sorghum export inspections rebounded to 5.1 million ...