Export sales of corn and wheat increased in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest weekly report and topped trade forecasts, while soybeans had a down week, although that business still exceeded the weekly pace needed to meet USDA's annual projections.

Old-crop corn sales of 44.8 million bu. were up 59% from the previous week, with regular customers Mexico, Colombia and Japan the leading buyers. The sales easily exceeded the weekly pace needed to meet USDA's annual forecast. New-crop sales of nearly 1.4 million bu. were down from a week ago and missed trade forecasts in a Reuters poll. Mexico and Guatemala were the leading buyers.

Old-crop soybean sales of 17.7 million bu. were down 29% from the prior week and were led by China, the Netherlands and Indonesia. About a third of the China business was switched from unknown destinations. New-crop sales of 14.5 million bu. were up a little from a week ago and went to China, unknown destinations, Mexico and Japan. Some of China's new-crop sales were announced last week via USDA's daily reporting system.

Wheat sales of 20.9 million bu. were up 23% for the week and topped trade forecasts by a hefty margin, although the sales were short of the projected pace needed to meet USDA's annual forecast. Unknown destinations, Taiwan and Algeria were the leading buyers. That included about 3.2 million bu. of 2017-18 sales, down from a week ago and led by the Philippines, unknown destinations and Mexico.

In the Chicago, Ill., overnight session, corn, soybean and wheat futures had little reaction to the exports. At the end of that session, May and July corn were each unchanged, and May and July soybeans were each up 1.25 cents/bu.

Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures closed the overnight session up a quarter-cent for May, and July was unchanged. Kansas City, Mo., hard red winter wheat was up 1 cent for May and up 0.75 cent for July. In spring wheat, May and July were each up 0.75 cent.

Soybean meal export sales of 229,100 metric tons were up from the previous week and matched trade forecasts, with Colombia, the Philippines and Thailand as the leading buyers. New-crop business of 2,800 mt was an improvement from last week's net reduction and was led by Japan and Nicaragua.

Soybean oil sales of 22,400 mt were up 79% from a week ago and beat trade forecasts, with South Korea, Mexico and the Dominican Republic as the leading buyers.

Sorghum sales of nearly 5.13 million bu. were up sharply from a week ago and were led by China, unknown destinations and Mexico.