By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for September delivery rose 4.3% to $5.16 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, as managed money investors piled into wheat in reaction to reports of slower-than-expected harvests by competitors on the export market.

--Corn for December delivery rose 0.5% to $3.54 1/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.6% to $8.97 1/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Worried About Wheat: Wheat futures perked up Wednesday thanks to a wave of interest from managed money investors after projections of lower wheat harvests worldwide. "Traders are fundamentally focused on declining production estimates in the United States, Argentina, France and the Black Sea Region," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX. "That's pushed global prices higher in recent days, turning chart signals that sparked computer momentum signals that accelerated gains today."

All Wet: Corn and soybean futures were weak on a change in weather forecasts that include more rain. "The forecast appears to have enough rain over the next 10-days to prevent any widespread crop problems," said Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives. Traders may shift their focus from weather issues over to projections for this week's WASDE report from the USDA, which will contain updated production and yield figures for the 2020 crop.

No Show: The USDA again didn't announce any new large sales of U.S. soybean exports to China on Wednesday - which contributed to pressure on soybean futures. "Beans caught some liquidation of bean/corn spreads with a lack of hard news out, and little new Chinese interest," said Charlie Sernatinger of ED&F Man Capital. "The Chinese were said to have bought a cargo of beans out of Argentina for August, and a new crop cargo out of Brazil... but little from the U.S."

INSIGHTS

Snapped Streak: After declining for 10 weeks, U.S. ethanol inventories rose 456,000 barrels in the past week, settling at 20.62 million barrels, according to the EIA. Last week, ethanol inventories fell to their lowest level since January 2017. Meanwhile, daily ethanol production is still growing in the U.S. after the coronavirus crisis forced many plants to shutter in the spring, with daily production increasing 14,000 barrels to 914,000 barrels per day - the highest level since late March. Corn futures on the CBOT showed little reaction to the ethanol data Wednesday.

No Appetite: Export sales of wheat are expected to remain puny this week, according to grains traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. Traders project sales for the week ending July 2 at anywhere from 200,000 metric tons to 550,000 tons. By comparison, wheat export sales totaled 489,300 tons in last week's report. Meanwhile, corn sales are projected at anywhere from 500,000 tons to 950,000 tons and soybean sales are projected at 800,000 tons to 1.4 million tons.

AHEAD:

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

--The USDA will release its monthly WASDE report at noon ET Friday.

--The CFTC releases its weekly commitment of traders report at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.