By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for July delivery fell 1.2% to $5.67 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, with the complex falling as weekend weather looks supportive for row crops.

--Corn for July delivery fell 1.1% to $4.29 a bushel.

--Soybeans for July fell 0.7% to $10.67 1/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Smooth Sailing: The weather outlook for new U.S. Corn Belt crops is expected to supportive for the formative stages of sprouting crops, which ultimately served as a source of pressure for grains through the end of the day. "The heat/dryness will push crop maturation and cause summer row crops to root down," AgResource said in a note. "The heat is needed following weeks of below normal temperatures and excessive rainfall for the Plains, Eastern Midwest, and Delta." For wheat, indications of improved weather comes amid concerns about the health of the winter wheat crop.

Moneyball: Movement on the CBOT appears mostly tied to fund traders adjusting their positioning in grains as the summer months begin, Saxo Bank's Ole Hansen said in a note. "Additional price strength from current levels could trigger upside breaks adding further momentum to the rally, not necessarily due to price-friendly fundamentals, but first of all due to buying as wrong-footed longs scale back bearish bets," Hansen said. "For the rally to become more sustainable...the global production outlook needs to deteriorate further, so for now we view the rally as technically more than fundamentally driven."


INSIGHT


Battered by Rain: Severe rainfall is battering the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, the country's agricultural agency Conab said in a notice. Rio Grande do Sul, the most-southernmost state in the country, produces roughly 71% of the country's rice, according to USDA data. The state also produces 43% of the nation's wheat and 11% of its soybeans. Conab said roughly 6,000 people have been evacuated due to the storm, which has sparked floods, landslides, and roadblocks in the area.

Better Than Expected: Export sales of U.S. soybeans exceeded analyst forecasts, buoyed by stronger sales of soybeans grown in the previous marketing year. Export sales for the week ended June 12 totaled 614,700 metric tons across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 marketing years. That's above the high end of forecasts from analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week, which ranged from 50,000 tons to 500,000 tons through both marketing years.

Widening Deficit: The U.S. imported more agricultural goods than it exported through the first four months of 2025, continuing a trend that started in 2022. The American Farm Bureau Federation said in note that the U.S. imported $78.2 billion of agricultural products, while exporting $58.5 billion in that time, according to USDA data. The nearly $20 billion deficit adds to the previous years' gap, despite attempts from the Trump Administration to even out the balance. "USDA now forecasts the FY 2025 deficit will rise to approximately $49.5 billion, which would mark the largest agricultural trade imbalance on record," the AFBF's Faith Parum said in a note.


AHEAD


--The USDA will release its weekly Grain Export Inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Monday.

--The USDA will release its monthly Chickens and Eggs report at 3 p.m. ET Monday.

--The CFTC will release its weekly Commitment of Traders report at 3:30 p.m. ET Monday

--The USDA will release its weekly Crop Progress report at 4 p.m. ET Monday.


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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-20-25 1550ET