By Kirk Maltais

-- Corn for July delivery rose 1% to $6.59 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday, with the USDA reporting another chinese purchase of a large quantity of new-crop corn.

-- Wheat for July delivery fell 0.3% to $6.97 3/4 a bushel.

-- Soybeans for July delivery fell 0.8% to $15.74 1/2 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Hot Commodity: The USDA again confirmed a large purchase of U.S. corn exports by China, with the agency saying China bought another 1.36 million metric tons of U.S. corn for the 2021/22 marketing year. That makes it more than 3 million tons of corn sold to China this week alone. This, combined with a weaker U.S. dollar, helped elevate corn futures Tuesday.

Biofuel Blowback: Soybean futures dipped in trading Tuesday, due in large part to weakness seen in soyoil futures that are trading only slightly below all-time highs set in 2008. "Traders fear that reduced consumption of fuel - if Colonial Pipeline has an extended slowdown - might also reduce biofuel demand," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX. Growth in the renewable fuels segment has made soyoil one of the leading agricultural commodities this year. Soyoil closed down 0.5% at just below 69 cents per pound.

INSIGHTS

Making New Bets: The volatile movement seen in corn futures is expected to continue in future sessions, said Marex Spectron. According to the firm, speculators appear unmoved by the steep drop in futures seen late last week, increasing their owned volumes of corn futures. In last week's Commitment of Traders report from the CFTC, managed money funds for the week ended May 11 cut their exposure in corn long positions by over 40,000 contracts - with the net long position at 311,523 contracts.

On the Upswing: U.S. ethanol production is expected to draw closer to the 1 million barrels per day mark, according to analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week. They say they expect production to rise as high as 992,000 barrels per day. Should production exceed expectations and rise to more than 1 million barrels per day, it'll be the first time since March 2020 that production has surpassed that level. Last week, production rose 27,000 barrels per day to 979,000 barrels, according to the EIA.

AHEAD:

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

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

--The USDA will release its monthly livestock slaughter report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-18-21 1730ET