USDA Releases June WASDE Report

The USDA released its June WASDE (World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates) report Thursday morning.

 

Jon Driedger is Vice-President with LeftField Commodity Research.

 

"Nothing too dramatic in today's report," he said. "There were some changes to the wheat balance sheet in the U.S. and nothing dramatic but maybe just a couple of cumulative changes that made the wheat balance sheet a little bit heavier in the U.S. than maybe the market was expecting. A little bit of a bigger production number, a little bit of a notch lower in old crop exports and again none of them on their own overly dramatic but kind of cumulatively they sort of add a little bit to the wheat balance sheet and maybe just gives it a little bit of a heavier leaning."

 

Driedger notes Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans has been disappointing so far, at least in terms of old crop.

 

"They've been big buyers of soybeans, but predominately for Brazil here in recent months and Brazil has been exporting record large volumes here through the late winter and early spring. At this point, Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans have been definitely less than what the market was looking for."

 

He talked about how crops are looking in the U.S.

 

"Today's report is on its own, not that dramatic, but against the backdrop of crop conditions that really for the most part are pretty good in the U.S. It's very early, there's areas of imperfection, there's been some concerns a little bit about the Southern Plains and some of the winter wheat crop but by and large not too many significant concerns."