By Kirk Maltais

--Soybeans for November delivery rose 2.2% to $10.44 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday, in response to an uptick to Malaysian palm oil futures overnight.

--Corn for December delivery rose 1.5% to $3.85 a bushel.

--Wheat for December delivery fell 1.5% to $5.92 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Reading Palms: Rising palm oil futures overseas pushed U.S. soybean futures higher Tuesday. "Malaysian palm oil appreciated over 3.5% overnight... in part to a report that palm oil prices will be higher amid lower production from La Nina effects," said Terry Reilly of Futures International. Demand from China and India also helped push palm oil prices higher.

Wallopin' Wheat: Wheat futures trading on the CBOT briefly pushed through the $6 per bushel barrier Tuesday. It's the first time since June 2015 that wheat futures have traded above that mark, due largely to the weather conditions affecting the Russian wheat crop. "The rally is being spurred by ongoing dryness across European Russia, which could cause farmers to slow or halt their winter wheat seeding effort," said AgResource. "The world has a record supply of wheat, but the market is concerned about 2021 Black Sea wheat supplies and a shift in world trade to the E.U. and the U.S."

INSIGHTS

Healthy Harvest: Yesterday's crop progress report from the USDA confirmed that corn and soybean harvests were progressing faster than the average pace of the past five years, but grain futures seemed to brush that off and trade higher Tuesday. Eventually though, they are expected to succumb to the pressure of a healthy harvest season. "While one may not suspect it via the current price action, harvest is in full swing, and the weather outlook would appear to promise clear sailing ahead," said Dan Hueber of the Hueber Report.

Tight Inventory: Friday's WASDE report by the USDA is being watched for how much the agency will mark down its expectations for grain inventories in the 2020/21 marketing year. Because the USDA made a sizable cut to its projections for 2019/20 grain inventories in its quarterly stocks report, traders believe it's almost a given that 2020/21 inventories will drop as well. "The tricky part is figuring out what are bullish/bearish numbers considering the recent price gains that we've seen," said Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives. A decline of 100 million soybean bushels and 400 million corn bushels is needed to keep current momentum in grains futures going,he added.

Storm Damage: Hurricane Delta, which is progressing through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to make landfall in Louisiana by Sunday, could affect grain exports leaving New Orleans. "Exporters are quickly loading as many ships as possible, but will abandon those operations to get ships back out to the Gulf and out of harm's way," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX. "Barges moving south will be held up-river until the hurricane passes. Damage will then be assessed in the New Orleans area, before operations resume." Grain export inspections reported by the USDA yesterday were strong, led by soybean inspections, which totaled 1.67 million metric tons this week. Meanwhile, wheat inspections totaled 643,671 tons and corn inspections totaled 863,995 tons - both on the high end of analyst expectations.

AHEAD:

--The EIA releases its weekly update on ethanol production and inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

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

--The USDA will release its monthly WASDE report at noon ET Friday.

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

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-06-20 1556ET