Portland Grain Review 08/23

August 23, 2018 Portland Price Trends 08-01-17 01-01-18 07-01-18 08-16-18 08-23-18 #1 SWW (bu) 5.20 5.32 6.00 6.20 6.12 White Club 5.30 5.32 6.00 6.23 6.14 DNS 14% 8.38 7.52 6.52 6.86 6.77 HRW 11.5% 5.65 5.60 5.86 6.57 6.39 #2 Corn (ton) 148.00 157.00 157.00 161.00 159.00 #2 Barley 125.00 128.00 150.00 145.00 145.00 Wheat..White wheat remains the stalwart of the west coast wheats, with basis levels against Chicago firming once again this week to hold the flat price market within a dime of recent multi-year highs. Spot basis has more than doubled since the first of August and stands 50 cents above the ten- year average for August. Hard red winter basis at 110 over KC is 40 cents above average while red spring is 15 cents under average at 90 over nearby Minneapolis futures. Weekly Sales...USDA reported overall US wheat sales languished after a good showing the prior week, with sales registering the second worst tally of the the marketing year at 8.8 mb. Year-to-date commitments now stand at 314 mb which is 23% below a year ago and 25% under the five-year average. Top seller for the week was hard red winter with 9.4 mb in new sales, the second best tally of the marketing year, but sales for that class remain nearly 40% behind a year ago and average pace. Hard red spring recorded a total of 1.2 mb, putting sales at 96 mb; 13% below a year ago and 15% off the five-year average. Another strong showing for Yemen buying soft white wheat was overshadowed by 5.3 mb in total cancellations from unknown and Indonesia. Soft white sales of 81 mb stand 20% behind a year ago but are 13% ahead of the five-year average pace. Top Buyers...Iraq was by far the top buyer of US wheat over the past week, booking 7.3 mb of hard red winter wheat. Yemen followed that with 3.1 mb of soft white, Colombia bought 2.2 mb and Mexico 1.7 mb. -Norm Ruhoff Contributing Analyst Copyright 2018 DTN/Telvent. All Rights Reserved.