USDA Releases 'Disappointing' February WASDE

The USDA released its February World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report Tuesday morning.

 

Dan Basse is president of AgResource Company in Chicago.

 

"The USDA, in their February nature, and it's usually a month of not very big changes, left things a little disappointing for the markets in Chicago. They only raised U.S. corn imports by 50 million bushels, leaving stocks at 1.5 billion bushels. They raised soybean exports 20 million bushels, leaving stocks there at 120 million bushels but everything else including U.S. wheat was unchanged."

 

Basse also commented on the world stage.

 

"They did cut the world wheat end stocks about 9 million metric tons. They raised Chinese feed use to 304 million metric tons. They've been selling a lot of wheat out of reserve in China. That's of course been going into the feed channel. Other than that, they raised Chinese corn imports to 24 million metric tons, that was versus 17.5 last month but again traders here in Chicago are left wandering, if they raised China's corn imports that much, why didn't the U.S. participate. Probably Ukraine and Brazil were sellers of some corn to China, but surely not enough to make up that USDA total."

Video: Will USDA 'Save the Day' + U S Post Midterm Election Ag Impact

Will the 2026 USDA November crop report redeem itself after a shocking higher U.S. 2026 corn yield in October?
The Democrats taking control of Congress and the Senate was not on anyone’s bingo card except ours!
The AI stock selloff knee jerk reaction over Dem’s looking to slow done the AI build out is a gift!
The Dems will now try to reign in Trump on the Iran war, tariffs (first 100 days tariffs on Canada could be removed), immigration and the corruption in the Trump administration. E15 and a new farm bill in 2027 may struggle with gridlock in Washington.
Does China walk away with U.S. ag trade as Trump has lost leverage? China to buy more U.S. ag but hinges on U.S. tariff reductions? Hang Tung Resources signs $600 million China agreement of U.S. wheat and sorghum.
Crude oil plunges 8%.
U.S. Midwest soil moisture profile is a concern.
Brazil looks wet in the next 10 days.
Hogs to new contract lows.
+ CFTC