By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for July delivery fell 1.8% to $11.09 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday as traders followed the movement of the oil and foreign exchange markets while keeping an eye on weather in the U.S. Corn Belt.

--Corn for July delivery fell 0.9% to $7.99 3/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for May delivery rose 0.1% to $17.16 1/2 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Macro Movers: Factors pressuring commodities overall had a mixed effect on grains. "Crude oil is down big today and the dollar is at its highest levels since March 2020," Joel Karlin of Western Milling told WSJ. WTI light sweet crude futures closed down 5.2%, while the U.S. Dollar Index on the ICE rose. Mr. Karlin added that for grains, Monday's rally that pushed prices to near-record levels spurred profit-taking on Tuesday.

Healthy Sign: A flash sale announced by the USDA this morning - 123,650 metric tons of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2021/22 marketing year - helped perk up CBOT soybean futures in an otherwise down day for grains. "Soybeans hold in the green on fresh Chinese demand," said AgResource in a note. The firm added that traders are guessing that the 'unknown destinations' is China, and rumors of more new crop buying by Chinese importers helped support soybean futures today, particularly among fund traders.


INSIGHTS


Weak Conditions: Winter wheat conditions in the U.S. dropped back to 30% good-or-excellent, down from 32% last week, according to the USDA's latest Crop Progress report. It's the lowest winter wheat conditions have been since 1996. "The water deficit on the large wheat plains in the south of the country continues and could therefore compromise the yields of the future crop," said AgriTel in a note on Tuesday. However, the drop in crop condition did little to push wheat higher. The report also showed planting progress for corn and soybeans behind last year's pace.

Wash Out: Rainfall is expected to continue for most of the week in the eastern portion of the U.S. Corn Belt, according to Tuesday's forecast from DTN. The firm forecasts scattered and isolated showers in the eastern Corn Belt through Saturday, with temperatures starting below normal and warming up as the week progresses. This rainfall comes as areas of the eastern U.S. Corn Belt have received as much as 4-6 inches more rain than usual over the past three months, according to data from the National Weather Service. This excess precipitation is making it difficult for farmers to get into the fields to begin planting.


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 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

04-19-22 1536ET