Quick Overview

The number of U.S. workers filing for initial unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 in the week ended April 9, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Business inventories rose 0.5% in February, the Commerce Department reported Thursday

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that old-crop soybean export sales last week hit a marketing-year low of 128,800 metric tons with China absent from the list of buyers. New-crop sales were 143,600 tons, total soybean sales came to 272,400 tons, which was under pre-report estimates ranging from 350,000 to 550,000 tons.

Informa Economics, a private analytical firm, is said to estimate U.S. cornproduction at 10.721 billion bushels. This compares to USDA's April production
estimate of 11.807 billion.
Export sales from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for corn were 915,600
metric tons for 2004-05. This is above trade estimates of 650,000 to 850,000
metric tons.


Wheat Export sales for the week ended April 7 were a net 389,400 metric tons for the 2004-05 crop year, while 29,000 tons of 2005-06 wheat were sold, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Thursday.
The sales generally met pre-report trade expectations for around
300,000-500,000 tons of export sales.

The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground natural gas supplies were up 44 billion cubic feet last week to 1.293 trillion cubic feet. YoY supplies up 23%.