By Kirk Maltais


--Soybeans for November delivery rose 1.1% to $14.78 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday on expectations the USDA's projection on planted soybean acres in the U.S. will drop.

--Wheat for September delivery fell 0.6% to $9.30 a bushel.

--Corn for December delivery fell 0.8% to $6.53 3/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Game Time: Grain futures on the CBOT were mixed for much of the day, ahead of Thursday's acreage report from the USDA. Grain traders say last week's selling was overdone, and that they're now trying to make up that difference ahead of the report's release. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that the USDA's outlook for planted soybean acres in the U.S. will drop roughly 500,000 acres to 90.4 million acres, while corn acres will rise by 200,000 acres to 89.7 million acres.

Let Down: Egyptian export buyers have yet to make a purchase based on Tuesday's tender, but U.S. wheat doesn't appear to be winning Egypt's business, even with the recent downturn in prices. Egypt's state buyer, The General Authority For Supply Commodities, said Wednesday that its lowest offer received for its wheat tender was $397.47 a metric ton for 60,000 tons of the grain without shipping or freight costs, coming from France. Earlier Wednesday, grain traders were optimistic that U.S. wheat exports could be competitive in this round of export buying.

Nervous Episode: Overall, grain traders were seen as taking a restrained approach to the market amid Thursday's reports from the USDA. "These quarterly USDA reports are known for their market-moving surprises," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX in a note. "That has traders nervous." Mr. Suderman adds that the upcoming three-day holiday in observance of Independence Day also has traders embracing a risk-off approach unless the planted acreage or quarterly stocks reports contain market-shocking data.


INSIGHTS


News Flash: Daily ethanol production in the U.S. inched lower over the past two weeks, although it was within the outlook of analysts surveyed by Dow Jones. In its latest weekly report, the EIA said U.S. ethanol daily production fell to 1.055 million barrels per day for the week ended June 17, and dropped to 1.051 million barrels per day for the week ended June 24. Analysts had predicted this week's figure to range from 1.024 million barrels per day to 1.075 million barrels per day. Data for the week ended June 17 had been scheduled to be released last Thursday, but was delayed. The EIA attributed this missed release date to "system issues."

Clean Energy: Efforts by the Biden Administration to bolster the size and diversity of the U.S. clean energy industry is resulting in strong growth of employment, said the Department of Energy. In an annual report released this week, the DOE said that growth of clean energy jobs offset a reduction of jobs in the petroleum, coal and nuclear segments. Overall, jobs in the energy sector grew 4% from 2020 to 2021, the DOE said - with the electric and hybrid electric vehicle segments growing by roughly 25% in 2021, adding a combined 45,000 jobs. The agency says that while efforts to transition to a net-zero emissions economy are underway, more funding from public and private sources alike is needed to build a diverse workforce to support that economy.


AHEAD:


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

-The USDA will release its acreage report at noon ET Thursday.

-The USDA will release its quarterly grain stocks report at noon ET Thursday.

-The USDA will release its monthly agricultural prices report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.


Yusuf Khan contributed to this article.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-29-22 1545ET