Weekly corn, soybean and wheat export sales in USDA’s weekly report were down sharply from the prior week and the lowest for their respective market years.

While the declines were larger than expected they can be attributed to the holiday week when world businesses were closed for at least a day. The lower numbers were below the weekly paces needed to meet USDA’s annual sales forecast. After the report corn, soybean and wheat futures moved lower in the closing minutes of overnight trading.

Weekly corn sales were 16.9 million bushels, down 55% from the previous week, with Japan, Peru and unknown destinations the leading buyers.

Soybean sales of 3.2 million bushels for the 2016/2017year were down 91% from the prior week. China, Indonesia and Vietnam led buyers.  There was a small sale of nearly 7,400 bushels of 2017/2018 soybeans to Japan.

The wheat sales of 6.8 million bushels for 2016/2017 were down 68% from the prior week, with the Philippines, Taiwan and Mexico the leading buyers.

Also on Thursday, USDA daily reporting said unknown destinations bought nearly 3.7 million bushels of hard red winter wheat. That sale will be included in a future weekly report.

Chicago’s corn, soybean and wheat futures markets moved lower after the export report. At the end of the overnight session, March and May corn were down ½ cent after being about a penny higher earlier. Soybean futures dropped 4 to 5 cents in the closing minutes to close 6-3/4 lower in January  and 7-1/2 lower in March. March soft red winter wheat futures dropped about 3 cents to close 1-3/4 lower and March hard red winter closed unchanged after being about 3-1/2 cents higher.  March spring wheat barely moved and closed ½ cent lower.

Soymeal export sales of 83,300 metric tons also were a market-year low and down 67% from the prior week. Mexico, Canada and Colombia led buyers. .

Soybean oil sales of 30,900 metric tons were up 64% and beat trade forecasts in a Reuters poll  with Mexico, the Dominican Republic and South Korea the leading buyers.

Sorghum had a net reduction of nearly 8,000 bushels as sales to China and Mexico were offset by cancellations by China.