USDA’s newest export sales report, out Thursday morning and covering the week through April 27, didn’t contain much bullish data for traders to digest. Old crop corn sales eroded to a marketing-year low. Old crop soybean sales were down 7% week-over-week, while old crop wheat volume managed to move 36% higher than the prior week’s tally.

Old crop corn sales faced net reductions of 12.4 million bushels. New crop sales chipped in 4.8 million bushels, trimming the deficit to 7.2 million bushels. Analysts struggled to predict the results, which still landed in the range of guesses that came in between net reductions of 17.7 million and net sales of 31.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year remain substantially below last year’s pace, with 998.8 million bushels since September 1, 2022.

Corn export shipments offered a sharp contrast after climbing to a marketing-year high of 66.9 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, China, Colombia and Taiwan were the top five destinations.

Sorghum export sales fell noticeably below the prior week’s total, with just 47,000 bushels. That grain is bound for China, minus some cancellations to unknown destinations. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are less than one-fourth of last year’s pace so far, with 43.3 million bushels.

Related:Weekly grain movement: Corn exceeds expectations

Soybean exports found 10.6 million bushels in old crop sales last week, plus another 2.5 million bushels in new crop sales, for a total tally of 13.1 million bushels. That was on the higher end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 3.7 million and 18.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are now slightly below last year’s pace, with 1.730 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments trended 12% above the prior four-week average, with 20.6 million bushels. China, Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico and South Korea were the top five destinations.

Wheat exports found 7.8 million bushels in old crop sales, plus another 10.3 million bushels of new crop sales, for a total of 18.1 million bushels. That was near the upper end of trade estimates, which ranged between 1.8 million and 20.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are slightly below last year’s pace so far, with 605.6 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments trended 5% lower week-over-week while staying 17% above the prior four-week average, with 10.6 million bushels. Egypt, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Italy were the top five destinations.

Click here to read more highlights from the latest UDSA export sales report.