By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for December delivery rose 1.4% to $8.31 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, in reaction to rumors of China seeking to purchase more French wheat exports.

--Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.7% to $14.22 1/2 a bushel.

--Corn for December delivery fell 1% to $6.70 1/2 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


On the Prowl: The USDA confirmed a new flash sale of soybean exports to China today - which is only one of the demand-related indicators traders responded to today. Talk among traders was that China sought to purchase French wheat exports, said Charlie Sernatinger of ED&F Man Capital in a note - resulting in short-covering lifting the futures contract.

Looming Large: Private forecasters are calling for U.S. farmers to plant more corn in 2023, which combined with an expected large Brazilian crop had traders anticipating a softening world balance sheet in trading today. In a survey published by Farm Futures - a division of Informa Markets - the firm says that 94.3 million acres of corn are expected to be planted in the U.S. next spring. "If realized, this would be the largest acreage in 10 years," said Donna Hughes of StoneX. "Also, if trendline yields hold on that acreage amount, that could mean an 8% production boost for next season."

Weakness Abroad: Uneasiness about world demand prospects was the source of early-day pressure, said AgResource in a note. "A record EU inflation rate for August at 9.1% along with the monthly Chinese PMI [at] 49.4 - a contracting economy - indicates the potential for weakening future demand," said the firm. However, flash sales announced by the USDA this week - confirming the sale of 167,000 metric tons of soybeans to China for delivery in the 2022/23 marketing year - helped ease those concerns later in the day.


INSIGHTS


State of Confusion: Last week, the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service attempted to roll out its updated system for reporting weekly export sales - with the data that was released retracted later that day. Now, U.S. grain traders and analysts find themselves operating in the dark as the USDA continues to keep their weekly export reporting system offline. "I turned my back, put up the dartboard, and threw some darts," said Sterling Smith of AgriSompo North America. The USDA has yet to issue an update on their plans for releasing export data going forward.

Starting Over: With September starting tomorrow comes the end of the 2021/22 marketing year and the official beginning of 2022/23. "All trading should now be in new crop 2022/23 contracts," said Craig Turner of Daniels Trading in a note. Selling is typically seen at this time of the year, ahead of U.S. harvesting - which tends to take place in September and October . "A bull market needs to be fed every day and we are in a seasonally bearish time in the calendar," said Mr. Turner - who adds that expectations for a large South American crop are applying pressure to CBOT futures.

Missing the Forecast: Even with daily U.S. production of ethanol sliding, inventories of ethanol in the U.S. have fallen below analyst forecasts. In its latest weekly report, the EIA said that ethanol inventories totaled 23.53 million barrels for the week ended August 26. That's down roughly 300,000 barrels from last week, and falls below analyst expectations. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast stocks to land anywhere between 23.7 million barrels and 24 million barrels. Meanwhile, daily ethanol production totaled 970,000 barrels per day, the lowest production has been since April.


AHEAD


--Hormel Foods Corp. will release its third-quarter results before the stock market opens on Thursday.

--Campbell Soup Co. will release its fourth-quarter results before the stock market opens on Thursday.

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

-The USDA will release its monthly grain crushings report at 3 p.m. Thursday.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-31-22 1504ET