By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for March delivery rose 2% to $7.64 3/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday as traders covered their short positions on wheat after Wednesday's USDA WASDE report didn't contain much in the way of market-moving data.

--Corn for March delivery rose 0.7% to $6.78 1/2 a bushel.

--Soybeans for March delivery rose 0.3% to $15.19 3/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS

Looking Ahead: For wheat, the WASDE report quickly became less of a focus for traders than other potential supply risks. "There were some shorts in the market who were worrying about supply-related issues such as the U.S. plains weather and the potential supply lost in Turkey," Mike Zuzolo of Global Commodity Analytics told The Wall Street Journal. "I suspect they were waiting to see the report first, however."

What About It?: After briefly plummeting upon its release, grain futures on the CBOT quickly returned to roughly where they were before the USDA released its monthly WASDE report at noon ET. The conservative moves didn't spark any lasting buying or selling, said Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives in a note following the report's release. "The larger-than-expected U.S. bean stocks were probably the biggest surprise as most guesses for the reduction in Argentine corn/bean production were very conservative. There doesn't appear to be anything here to push the markets out of their recent trading ranges."


INSIGHT

Quick Pivot: In general, the data reported by the USDA in Wednesday's WASDE report was within or close to trader forecasts, likely muting the reaction seen in futures. "There were no major surprises in this report," says Craig Turner of institutional financial services company StoneX in a note. "The market likely goes back to trading South American weather and global export demand tomorrow."

Holding Out Hope: Grain traders are holding onto hope that strong export sales for U.S. corn seen in last week's report from the USDA can be replicated, although they still expect a slight drop-off. Grain traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal are forecasting export sales for the week ended Feb. 2 to land anywhere from 700,000 metric tons to 1.4 million tons. Sales on the high end of this range would be slightly down from the 1.76 million tons reported by the USDA last week, but still a strong showing that may reassure trader fears about the strength of demand for U.S. exports.

Dog-Eat-Dog: Ethanol producer Green Plains Inc. said that it ran up against a "challenging" environment for producing ethanol late last year, including rail delays and weather-related shutdowns. Although the company reported selling 12.3% more gallons of ethanol in the fourth quarter than in the same period last year, and 16.3% more gallons of ethanol for the full year of 2022 versus 2021, profit per gallon fell to only a fraction of where they were in the previous year. Green Plains also attributed higher corn prices to the diminished margin, with the continuous corn contract closing 2022 at $6.79 a bushel - 14.5% higher than the end of 2021. Green Plains reported a net income of $9.6 million for the fourth quarter, down from $9.9 million for the same quarter last year.


AHEAD

-Kellogg Co. will release its fourth-quarter earnings report at 8 a.m. ET Thursday.

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

-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

02-08-23 1522ET