By Kirk Maltais


--Corn for December delivery fell 1.6% to $4.35 3/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday, with traders taking a cautious stance ahead of Friday's slate of reports from the USDA.

--Soybeans for July delivery fell 0.5% to $11.06 1/2 a bushel.

--Wheat for September delivery fell 0.3% to $5.59 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Giving In: CBOT corn led grain futures lower near the end of the session, with traders staying cautious ahead of Friday's USDA annual acreage and quarterly stocks reports. For fall for corn came after starting the day higher. "The problem is that key USDA reports are ahead, which have a history of being highly unpredictable," AgResource said in a note.

Searching for the Bottom: Row crops futures started the day "oversold" according to an AgriSompo note, and finished unchanged by the end of the day. "There is little relief in sight currently," AgriSompo said, and added that trading is expected to stay muted until Friday.


INSIGHT


Brief Signs: CBOT wheat did show signs of a rebound on Wednesday after falling nearly 20% in the past month and closing lower for six of the last seven trading sessions. That fell away as traders tried to weigh the affects of tighter Russian wheat exports, higher Indian demand and good news out of the U.S. "The very rapid progress of the winter wheat harvest in the United States and the persistence of good yield reports continue to weigh on wheat prices," AgriTel said in a note.

Against the Trend: Average daily production of U.S. ethanol fell back for the week ended June 21, sliding below the range of forecasts from analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. The EIA said on Wednesday that average daily ethanol production was 1.043 million barrels a day for the week, which is down 14,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Analysts had mostly expected daily production to rise from 1.056 million barrels and 1.077 million barrels a day. Ethanol inventories also fell for the week, declining nearly 200,000 barrels to 23.42 million barrel, which was within the range forecast by analysts this week. Higher producer margins should make ethanol production more attractive, Total Farm Marketing's Naomi Blohm said.


AHEAD


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

-The USDA will release its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.

--The USDA will release its yearly Acreage report at noon ET Friday.

-The USDA will release its quarterly Grain Stocks report at noon ET Friday.

-The USDA will release its monthly Agricultural Prices report at noon 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

06-26-24 1546ET