USDA’s latest weekly export sales report, out Thursday morning and covering the week through October 29, held another mixed bag of data for traders to digest. The clear winner was corn, which continues to impress after trending even higher this past week. Wheat sales also tracked higher week-over-week, with soybean sales easing slightly lower.

Corn sales moved 16% higher from a week ago and jumped 75% above the prior four-week average, with 102.8 million bushels in old crop sales. New crop sales found another 21.3 million bushels, for a total tally of 124.1 million bushels. Analysts thought that number would come in somewhere between 70.9 million and 98.4 million bushels. Mexico pulled in around half of that total, with 63.1 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year raced ahead to 269.8 million bushels.

Corn export shipments slipped 1% lower week-over-week and 14% below the prior four-week average, to 28.7 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 13.0 million bushels. Mexico, Colombia, Honduras and Japan rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export sales saw another 16.5 million bushels in old and new crop sales last week, headed for China and unknown destinations. Export shipments of 3.7 million bushels were all headed to China.

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Soybean export sales dropped 32% below the prior four-week average but still landed at a relatively strong 56.3 million bushels. That was on the higher end of trade guesses, which ranged between 29.4 million and 62.5 million bushels. China bought more than half of the total, with 29.8 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are well ahead of last year’s pace, with 611.7 million bushels.

Soybean export shipments dipped 6% below last week’s tally but firmed 6% above the prior four-week average, with 92.9 million bushels. China took the bulk of that total, with 71.2 million bushels. Bangladesh, Mexico, the Netherlands and Pakistan filled out the top five.

Wheat export sales tilted 10% above the prior four-week average, moving to 21.9 million bushels. That reached the upper end of trade estimates, which ranged between 7.3 million and 25.7 million bushels. The top destination was unknown destinations, with 5.1 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still slightly higher year-over-year, with 402.4 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments dropped 31% below the prior four-week average, meantime, with 11.7 million bushels. South Korea was the No. 1 destination, with 3.1 million bushels. Japan, Nigeria, Venezuela and Jamaica rounded out the top five.

Click here to see more highlights from the latest USDA export report, covering October 23 through October 29.