U.S. Grain Export Sales Lag Behind Analyst Expectations

For the 2025/26 and 2026/27 marketing years, corn export sales reached 1.03 million metric tons, while soybean sales hit 1.59 million tons and wheat totaled 290,000 tons. These figures consistently trailed the upper-end estimates provided by analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal, who had anticipated corn sales climbing toward 1.6 million tons, soybeans reaching 2.2 million tons, and wheat nearing 550,000 tons.

Market participants ignored the tepid export data as CBOT futures climbed in early trading. Most-active corn contracts rose 0.6%, soybeans advanced 0.7%, and wheat gained 0.2%. This upward momentum suggests that traders are prioritizing supply constraints or other macroeconomic drivers over the cooling weekly export demand reported by the USDA.