Portland Grain Review 04/17

April 17 2018 Portland Price Trends 04-01-17 08-01-17 03-01-18 04-10-18 04-17-18 #1 SWW (bu) 4.82 5.20 5.78 6.00 5.90 White Club 4.97 5.30 5.78 6.00 5.90 DNS 14% 6.66 8.38 7.64 7.64 7.43 HRW 11.5% 4.94 5.65 6.83 6.67 6.27 #2 Corn (ton) 160.00 148.00 173.00 181.00 179.00 #2 Barley 120.00 125.00 150.00 152.00 152.00 Wheat...Early-week trade saw a continued firming of white wheat basis, countering some of the lower move in Chicago futures. Spot basis on soft white has seen a 35 cent range over the past two weeks. Hard red winter basis also firmed-up while hard red spring spot basis remains steady. Crop Progress...PNW winter wheat conditions held mostly steady through the week, with the three-state weighted index placing the crop at 102% of the 20-year average. Good to excellent ratings for Washingtom climbed 4 points to 79% while Idaho came in at 54%, dropping 5% from the excellent category. Persistent wet weather has spring wheat plantings setting well behind average. Idaho is 29% planted versus a 52% average and Washington is 10% sowed versus a five-year average of 35%. Shipments...Weekly export inspections showed a modest improvement for U.S. wheat loadings over the past week, coming in at 17.7 mb to put total shipments at 766 mb and 10% behind a year ago. Top shipper was hard red winter with 6.5 mb, hard red spring at 4.4 mb and soft white with 2.9 mb. Top destination off the west coast was the Philippines with 5.3 mb. -Norm Ruhoff Contributing Analyst Copyright 2018 DTN/Telvent. All Rights Reserved.