By Kirk Maltais


--Corn for December delivery fell 1.2% to $4.80 1/2 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday, with traders cashing in on recent strength in the contract on what was otherwise a quiet news day.

--Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.5% to $13.85 1/2 a bushel.

-- Wheat for December delivery rose 0.9% to $6.07 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Onto the Next: With September starting Friday, grain traders spent the day getting their books in order, Karl Setzer of Mid-Co Commodities said. "Some of the weak shorts in soybeans got out early today and this gave us a bump in futures," Setzer said. "Once this ended we had futures drift lower - this is also taking place in corn." The drift is allowing U.S. prices to come closer to those seen for South American exports, Setzer said.

Breaking the Streak: After finishing lower for four consecutive sessions, most-active CBOT wheat futures closed higher. The move was mostly a technical reaction to the streak of losses, covering short positions ahead of the end of the month. Also propping up wheat futures are indications that Russia has no interest in rejoining the Black Sea Grain Initiative, AgResource said in a note.


INSIGHT


Withering Heat: Futures started the day higher on heat in the Corn Belt remaining above-average for this time of year. "The Midwest and Plains remain hot and dry until further notice," said Matt Zeller of StoneX in a note. Focus is turning towards the USDA's next Crop Progress report, which is expected to show a drop-off in crop quality. Traders are questioning how much this heat wave is damaging crops, which the upcoming WASDE is expected to address.

Potential Uptick: Grain traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect weekly corn export sales to nearly double. For the week ended Aug. 24, analysts forecast corn exports of 475,000 metric tons to 1.1 million tons. The high end of the forecasts would be close to double the 650,800 tons sold across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 marketing years in the week ended Aug. 17 and a sign that demand is recovering.

Low Point: Ethanol inventories have fallen to their lowest point since last November, according to the EIA - potentially negative for U.S. corn consumption. In its latest weekly report, it said that ethanol inventories totaled 21.61 million barrels for the week ended August 25, which is down over 1 million barrels from the previous week. The pullback in inventories is larger than forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones, who had predicted that they would land anywhere from 22.35 million barrels to 23 million barrels. Average daily ethanol production was reported by the EIA at 1.007 million barrels, which is in the middle of analyst forecasts.


AHEAD


--The USDA will release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

--The U.S. Drought Monitor will release its updated map at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

--The USDA will release its monthly agricultural prices report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.


Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-30-23 1536ET