TOP STORIES: 



  Corn Rally Extends as Funds Adjust Position 


  Corn for December delivery rose 2.9% to $3.60 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, as grains traders continued to digest the data released by the USDA on Tuesday and started to reverse course on the largely short position held in corn. Soybeans for November delivery rose 1.9% to $8.99 a bushel. Wheat for September delivery rose 1.4% to $4.98 3/4 a bushel. 


  Managed money funds are quickly changing course on their investment patterns for corn and soybeans, said AgResource. "CBOT futures are deeply in the green on Wednesday as funds aggressively added to their soybean long and exit their corn short," the firm said, which estimates that funds bought anywhere from 28,000 to 32,000 contracts of corn, as well as 9,000 to 10,000 contracts of soybeans this afternoon. As of June 23, managed money funds had a net short in corn of over 285,000 contracts - leaving ample room for funds to react to a more bullish than expected acreage report from the USDA on Tuesday. 


  General Mills Beats Expectations as Consumers Eat at Home During Pandemic 


  General Mills Inc. beat Wall Street forecasts for sales and profit for its fiscal fourth quarter as consumers stocked up on its food amid coronavirus-related lockdowns. 


  The producer of Cheerios cereal, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Nature Valley granola bars and other products reported Wednesday $5.02 billion in sales for the quarter that ended May 31, up from $4.16 billion a year earlier and ahead of the $4.99 billion that analysts predicted. 


  Comparable sales rose 16% in the quarter. 


  STORIES OF INTEREST: 


  General Mills Skips Forecast For FY21 Due To Pandemic -- Market Talk 


  0817 ET - General Mills doesn't provide a forecast, including for organic net sales and adjusted profit per share, for its new fiscal year, which began June 1, citing uncertainty tied to the pandemic. The maker of Cheerios, Nature Valley granola bars and a bevy of other products does see the pandemic, as well as a recession, resulting in higher orders for its food. The question facing General Mills--and the packaged-food industry writ large--is how long and with what magnitude the elevated demand tied to the coronavirus-related eating-at-home will continue. Among other factors, General Mills says it is assessing everything from the level of virus control and the possibility of a vaccine to GDP growth and consumer confidence to try to figure that out. Shares down 2.5% premarket. (micah.maidenberg@wsj.com; @MicahMaidenberg) 


  Constellation Brands' Bottom Line Resilient Despite Beer Shipment Drop -- Market Talk 


  1029 ET - Even though beer shipments were down, Constellation Brands' bottom line was resilient, MKM Partners said. "The most important aspect of the report was earnings resilience in the face of negative Beer shipments," the firm said. Shipment volume in the company's beer division fell 7.2% and the company logged 5.6% depletion growth. While net sales fell at Constellation, those and adjusted earnings both beat analysts' consensus estimates from FactSet. Shares of Constellation were up 8.3% Wednesday morning. (allison.prang@wsj.com; @AllisonPrang) 


  Ethanol Inventories Fall to Lowest Since 2017 -- Market Talk 


  11:26 ET - US ethanol inventories are now at their lowest level since January 2017, according to data from the EIA. Inventories dropped another 870,000 barrels this week, putting them at 20.2M barrels--the lowest since the week of Jan. 6, 2017. The consumption of leftover ethanol barrels is good news for US corn, which has held a bearish view of ethanol demand in the US since the coronavirus outbreak forced many plants to shut their doors either temporarily or permanently. Ethanol production also continued to recover, although it only grew by 7,000 barrels a day this week, rising to a rate of 900,000 barrels a day. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais) 


  THE MARKETS: 


  Cattle Finishes Day Higher -- Market Talk 


  15:48 ET - Live-cattle futures finish trading 1.1% higher at 97.3 cents a pound. It's the highest live cattle have traded since early June, rising ahead of the Independence Day holiday--a big grilling holiday in the US. Meanwhile, hog futures rise just 0.1% to 49.075c amid signs that the industry may be righting itself after the Covid-19 outbreak in the US hurt meat demand. "Hog weights jumped when animals started to back up ahead of packing plants, but last week the average weight declined by 2 pounds per animal," Karl Setzer of AgriVisor says. "While still above average, this shows the hog situation may be starting to remedy itself." (kirk.maltais@wsj.com, @kirkmaltais)