USDA’s latest export sales report, covering the week ending April 23, contained a bounty of bullish data, which helped spark a round of technical buying Thursday morning. Corn, soybean and wheat export sales were all up noticeably from a week ago.

Corn export sales led the way again last week, scooping up another 53.4 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 13.3 million bushels in new crop sales for a total tally of 66.7 million bushels. That topped all trade guesses, which ranged between 35.4 million and 65.0 million bushels. Old crop sales boosted 87% above the prior week’s disappointing haul and remained 19% above the prior four-week average. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year still aren’t close to reaching last year’s pace, however, with 893.7 million bushels. (Sales almost reached 1.4 billion bushels the same time a year ago.)

Corn export shipments were also robust last week, reaching 41.4 million bushels. That was a 27% improvement from a week ago but down 9% from the prior four-week average. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 15.9 million bushels. South Korea, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic filled out the top five.

Although overall sorghum sales are small compared to other grains, this commodity continues to perform strongly in the 2019/20 marketing year, with China and Japan buying another 12.0 million bushels last week. Total sales this year are more than double the pace of 2018/19, with 75.8 million bushels.

Soybean export sales continued to improve last week, thanks to China reemerging as the primary buyer. Old crop sales topped 39.6 million bushels, with another 3.9 million bushels in new crop sales, for a total tally of 43.5 million bushels. That was good enough to land in the middle of trade guesses, which ranged between 29.4 million and 58.8 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still ahead of last year’s pace, reaching 1.240 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments were 21% better than the prior four-week average, with just under 21.0 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 5.1 million bushels. Egypt, Japan, Indonesia and Morocco rounded out the top five.

Wheat export sales boomed 91% higher week-over-week, pulling in 17.2 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 5.7 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 23.9 million bushels. That landed at the very high end of trade estimates, which ranged between 7.3 million and 23.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still up nearly 6% from a year ago, at 803.1 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments trended weaker, however, moving 19% lower week-over-week to 16.1 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 2.7 million bushels, followed by Thailand, South Korea, Algeria and Brazil.

Click here to see all of last week’s export sales data from USDA.