WASHINGTON - The U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday raised its outlook for domestic corn supplies by 25 million bushels, more than analysts were expecting, because of weakening export demand.
U.S. stockpiles of soybeans and wheat were left unchanged, the government said in its monthly supply and demand report.
Corn ending stocks for the 2015 to '16 marketing year were pegged at 1.785 billion bushels, up from the government's November projection of 1.760 billion. Analysts were expecting corn ending stocks of 1.768 billion bushels, based on the average of estimates in a Reuters poll.
USDA cut its outlook for U.S. corn exports by 50 million bushels to 1.750 billion. USDA noted increased export demand for Canadian and Brazilian corn on the world market. A year ago, U.S. corn exports totaled 1.864 billion bushels.
The government raised its outlook for U.S. corn use for ethanol to 5.200 billion bushels from 5.175 billion bushels.
Soybean ending stocks of 465 million bushels, a nine-year high, were slightly above the average analyst forecast of 462 million bushels. Wheat ending stocks of 911 million bushels were 7 million bushels below market expectations.
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On the global front, USDA raised its outlook for world ending stocks of wheat above market forecasts, largely due to increased production in Canada and the European Union.
World ending stocks of wheat were seen at 229.86 million metric tons, up from 227.30 million metric tons in November and above analysts estimates that ranged from 224.00 million tonnes to 228.73 million metric tons.
The Canadian wheat production outlook was boosted to 27.60 million metric tons from 26.00 million metric tons. Wheat production in the European Union was raised to 157.66 million tonnes from 157.27 million metric tons.
USDA pegged global ending stocks of soybeans at 82.58 million metric tons, down from 82.86 million metric tons in November, and global ending stocks of corn at 211.85 million metric tons, down from 211.91 million metric tons.
Analysts, on average, had been expecting global corn ending stocks of 212.08 million metric tons and global soybean ending stocks of 82.64 million metric tons.
