Headlines:

 Vietnam Bans Importation of Glyphosate (It comes on the heels of the second glyphosate trial that went against Bayer)

Vietnam announced this week it is banning the importation of glyphosate. It comes after the most recent glyphosate verdict that went against Bayer in a California court. Last month, California jury awarded $80 million to the plaintiff in the case of Hardeman v. Monsanto, a trial conducted in the federal glyphosate multidistrict litigation before Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California. Bayer is now 0 for 2 in glyphosate trials. Last August, San Francisco Superior Court jurors ruled in favor of Dewayne Johnson, a 42-year-old school groundskeeper suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In the verdict, jurors found Monsanto liable for $289 million. That award was later reduced to $78 million and is on appeal.

Summary:

Traders were not impressed with the USDA Weekly Export Sales Report with the markets finishing mostly lower on the day. At the close corn was down 2 cents, beans 5.75 cents and wheat end the day up 5 cents. In the outside markets, the crude oil market gave up about a dollar, the US dollar was higher, and the US Equities markets were higher. It appears that traders remain unoptimistic of a US/China trade deal coming to fruition any time soon. The was some follow-through buying after the negative USDA crop report on Tuesday but those gains are now long gone. Trade rumors out of China were also supportive to the grains those initial gain. Talks have suggested that China could be buying some huge amounts of grains from the US. However, rumors have swirled like this before. The market is reluctant to build that news up too much these days as it has backfired in the past. Lastly, wet and cold weather forecast look to hold its grip on much of the US, keeping the grain prices supported.

In the USDA’s Weekly Export Sales Report, it showed weak soybean and corn figures.:

Corn = 548,000 metric tons vs. the trade’s expectations of between 700,000-1.200,000 mmt. 

Soybeans = 280,400 mt. vs. the trade’s expectations of between 450,000 mt.-1.2 mmt. 

Wheat = 474,400 mt. the trade’s expectations of between 400,000-850,000 mt. 

Soybean meal = 152,100 mt. the trade’s expectations of between 100,000-200,000 mt.