USDA’s latest round of export sales data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through August 5, held mixed but mostly bullish data for traders to digest. Corn posted better-than-expected old crop sales and solid new crop sales for a total that moved to the high end of trade guesses. Soybeans fared even better, with total sales exceeding the entire range of analyst estimates. Wheat sales were much more tepid, falling 32% below the prior four-week average, although export shipments scratched out a new marketing-year high.

Corn exports found 14.9 million bushels of old crop sales, plus another 23.7 million bushels of new crop sales, for a total of 38.6 million bushels. That was near the upper end of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.8 million and 43.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still nearly a billion bushels ahead of last year’s pace, reaching 2.543 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments slipped 12% below the prior four-week average, meantime, to 41.7 million bushels. China (13.9 million) and Mexico (13.3 million) were by far the top two destinations. Japan, Saudi Arabia and Colombia rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export sales saw a modest amount of 260,000 bushels bound for China last week. Cumulative sales for the 2020/21 marketing year still have a healthy lead over last year’s pace, with 262.3 million bushels.

Soybean exports saw 3.6 million bushels in old crop sales and another 41.2 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 44.8 million bushels. That was better than the entire range of trade estimates, which came in between 13.7 million and 36.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are nearly 700 million bushels ahead of last year’s pace, with 2.184 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments tumbled to a marketing-year low of 4.8 million bushels, in contrast. Mexico topped all destinations, with 1.4 million bushels. Canada, Japan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia filled out the top five.

Wheat exports tilted 5% lower week-over-week and 32% below the prior four-week average, to 10.8 million bushels. Analysts were generally expecting a more robust tally, with trade guesses ranging between 9.2 million and 20.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still off to a moderately sluggish start compared to a year ago, with 137.6 million bushels since July 1.

Wheat export shipments moved 62% higher week-over-week to a new marketing-year high of 23.1 million bushels. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 4.8 million bushels. Mexico, Nigeria, China and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights and insights from the latest USDA report, covering July 30 through August 5.