By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for March delivery rose 2.2% to $6.30 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, as traders took the opportunity to shed some of their exposure via short contracts ahead of the holidays.

--Corn for March delivery rose 0.7% to $4.82 3/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for January delivery rose 0.2% to $13.17 1/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Taking Off Their Shorts: "Wheat is up from technical buying today," Karl Setzer of Consus Ag Consulting said. "Funds have been holding sizable short positions of the grains and are covering these ahead of year-end." Funds hold a total of 240,377 short wheat contracts, making them net short 127,001 contracts in the most recent CFTC report.

Cause and Effect: Guidance from the Treasury Department on tax credits for sustainable aviation fuel showed producers are eligible for a tax credit of $1.25 to $1.75 a gallon. CBOT corn got only a minor boost from the release of the guidance, which lacked detail, Naomi Blohm of Total Farm Marketing said in a note after the release. "Nothing specific yet regarding actual numbers of new corn demand use for ethanol," Blohm said.


INSIGHT


Downside Exhaustion: The effect of the news of Argentina's devaluation of its currency looks to be wearing off. Traders expect that the peso's devaluation would spur more export sales from Argentina, in turn pressuring U.S. futures, but there may not be much technical room for such selling. "The corn price had plunged by more than 30% since the start of the year, reaching its lowest level since the end of 2020 in late November," Commerzbank said in a note. "The downside potential is thus likely to be already virtually exhausted."

Brazilian Buzz: Wheat traders are watching weather changes in Brazil in the coming weeks, Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage said in a note. "The crop problems in Brazil remain and while the rain in the forecast for the end of next week could be positive, 10 days is still a long time to wait for a rain--especially with hot conditions depleting soil moisture," Pfitzenmaier said.


AHEAD


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

--The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.


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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-15-23 1605ET