By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for July delivery fell 3.7% to $12.30 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday as traders opted to take profits on recent gains amid a risk-off day on overall markets.

--Corn for July delivery fell 2.4% to $7.81 1/2 a bushel.

--Soybeans for July delivery fell 0.9% to $16.62 3/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Following the Trend: Selling in wider markets made its way into agricultural futures, particularly for wheat. "Those assets posting the largest gains of late face the greatest risks on sell-offs, as a general rule," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX in a note. "Traders largely ignored social media posts from the Wheat Quality Council tour showing drought-ravaged wheat fields in the western plains." The selling in wheat comes after the most-active contract rose in recent days in reaction to the Indian government banning wheat exports. The contract jumped over 17% in the past week.

Looking Better: Temperatures in some crop-growing areas are improving and allowing farmers to seed their fields. "Corn and soy have found relative strength amid a wetter Midwest forecast," said AgResource in a note. Profit-taking is also a factor in today's market, with traders seeing today's movement as a break before the completion of planting heading into next month.


INSIGHTS


Reversal Of Fortune: Inventories of ethanol in the U.S. fell within the last week, according to the latest data from the EIA. The government said U.S. ethanol stocks fell back below the 24 million barrel mark - to 23.79 million barrels, from 24.14 million barrels last week. This week's total falls on the low end of expectations from analysts surveyed by Dow Jones, with analysts forecasting stocks between 23.78 million barrels to 24.29 million barrels. Daily production, meanwhile, stayed unchanged from last weeks' figure at 991,000 barrels per day.

Lower Level: After being strong in recent weeks, sales of U.S. soybean exports are expected to stay below the 1 million bushel mark for a second week, according to grain traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. They forecast sales of soybeans for the week ended May 12 to total anywhere between 200,000 metric tons and 800,000 metric tons across both the 2021/22 and 2022/23 marketing years. Sales last week totaled only 221,000 tons - well below 1.14 million tons reported in the week prior. Corn sales are forecast between 750,000 tons and 1.3 million tons, while wheat sales are forecast between 50,000 tons and 400,000 tons.


AHEAD:


--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.

-Deere & Co. will release its second-quarter earnings report before the stock market opens on Friday.

-The USDA will release its monthly Cattle on Feed report at 3 p.m. ET Friday.

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


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-18-22 1547ET