By Kirk Maltais


--Corn for May delivery rose 3.6%, to $4.42 1/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday, after the USDA cut its outlook for how much corn acres would be planted by U.S. farmers this spring.

--Wheat for May delivery rose 2.6%, to $5.61 1/2 a bushel.

--Soybeans for May delivery were virtually unchanged, at $11.92 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Corn Pops: The USDA's reduction of expected U.S. corn acres to 90 million acres planted, which is down from last year's near record and below the expectations of analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal, pushed corn futures up Thursday. "The market didn't get the uber bearish report that it was looking for with corn," says Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives in a note. Bergman projects that corn will outperform other grains in upcoming sessions, but upticks are expected to be limited by a generally positive outlook for U.S. weather. "We will need some weather issues to change the outlook to friendly," Bergman said.

Back on Track: With the USDA cutting its acreage outlook for both corn and wheat, fund traders seemed to take their cue to cover some of their ample short positions. "It was going to be hard to get a bearish report today, given that everyone is already short everything, so I suspect the bullish bias holds to the close," said Charlie Sernatinger of Marex in a note.


INSIGHT


Blocked Shipments: Reports this week that cargo vessels carrying roughly 400,000 metric tons of grain are being held up by Russian authorities have been an influence for wheat futures' movement. "The reports indicate that the government is seeking more control of the exports and has made life very difficult on the private exporters in an effort to extract more sales and powers to the government," said Jack Scoville of Price Futures Group in a note. "Russia is the world's largest exporter and sets the world price and prices remain low."

Change in Fortunes: Export sales of U.S. wheat for the week ended March 21 exceeded the estimates of analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. In the USDAs latest weekly report, wheat sales across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 marketing years totaled 552,400 metric tons. This exceeded estimates calling for a reduction of 50,000 tons of previously announced sales and sales of up to 500,000 tons. Corn sales landed on the high end of analyst forecasts, totaling 1.33 million tons. Soybean sales totaled 383,900 tons, which is on the low end of forecasts.


AHEAD


--The CBOT will be closed in observance of Good Friday, reopening on Monday.

--The CFTC will release its weekly Commitment of Traders report at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.

--The USDA will release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Monday.

--The USDA will release its monthly Grains Crushings report at 3 p.m. ET Monday.

--The USDA will release its first weekly Crop Progress report at 4 p.m. ET Monday.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-28-24 1518ET