By Kirk Maltais 



  --Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.6% to $9.78 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, hitting the highest level in nearly a year on hopes Chinese purchasing of U.S. exports will continue. 


  --Wheat for December delivery fell 0.1% to $5.43 3/4 a bushel. 


  --Corn for December delivery fell 0.4% to $3.60 1/4 a bushel. 


  HIGHLIGHTS 


  Making Good: The most-active soybean futures contract climbed Wednesday, boosted by Beijing. "China continues to buy U.S. soybeans on nearly a daily basis, while periodically throwing in some corn and wheat as well," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX. "That keeps the trade optimistic that the next four to five months will see strong export shipments on a weekly basis, with USDA expected to ratchet production estimates lower in Friday's WASDE report as well." 


  No Big Deal: A one-point slide in both the U.S. corn and soybean crop in good or excellent condition in the USDA's weekly crop condition report did little to spur movement on the CBOT Wednesday. "The condition decline is in line with seasonal averages, which occurs as the crop reaches closer to full maturity," said AgResource. For corn, that puts the percentage of the crop in good or excellent condition at 61%, while for soybeans it's 65%. 


  INSIGHTS 


  Adding Up: The USDA said that 238,000 metric tons of soybeans have been sold to China for delivery in the 2020/21 marketing year. That makes it 902,000 metric tons of soybeans sold to China this week alone. While this was good news for soybean traders, the focus of many traders may be more on this upcoming Friday's WASDE report. "The real question for the next couple of days is whether the funds will trim their long position a little ahead of Friday's report," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage. 


  High Tides: China's corn prices are higher as the market awaits further news about the impact of the recent Typhoon Haishen. "Everyone agrees that production and yield were reduced, but no one has really put a specific estimate on the losses," said Darin Friedrichs, senior Asia commodity analyst at StoneX. 


  AHEAD: 


  --The USDA releases its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. 


  --The USDA releases its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand report at noon ET Friday. 


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


  Lucy Craymer contributed to this article. 


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