By Kirk Maltais


--Wheat for May delivery fell 1.1% to $5.67 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday, with the fallout of the fighting in the Middle East continuing to disrupt commodity prices.

--Corn for May delivery fell 0.6% to $4.43 3/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for May delivery fell 0.4% to $11.66 1/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Center Stage: For grain traders, the Iran conflict remains in focus, rather than concerns about weather. "The Iran conflict rages on today and the grains remain mostly in the background," said Matt Zeller of StoneX in a note. The USDA's March WASDE report comes out next week, but the market is looking elsewhere. "Major changes will be unlikely from the USDA in the March S&D," said Zeller.

Dragging Feet: Grain markets were under pressure throughout the day. "There's an overall heavy feel to the market amid the lack of U.S./global cash market excitement, nor any glaring global weather threats at the moment," AgResource said in a note. Traders eye excess rainfall in the northern portion of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, with the rainfall seen causing mold and decay problems for soybean harvests.


INSIGHT


Problem Area: Fertilizer prices rise amid the showdown in the Middle East and the bottleneck of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Dry urea sees the largest uptick versus the prior month, according to DTN. Dry urea was assessed at $611 a ton for the week ended Feb. 27, up 4.8% from the same time last month. Urea prices are up nearly 12% from this time last year, and the other seven categories of fertilizers monitored by DTN are also higher.

Stacking Stocks: Ethanol inventories in the U.S. jumped back over the 26 million-barrel mark this week, said the EIA in its weekly report. For the week ended Feb. 27, ethanol stocks totaled 26.34 million barrels. It's the highest that stocks have been since last April, exceeding forecasts from analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week. Average daily production for the week was 1.1 million barrels a day, below the low end of analyst forecasts.

Back to Back: The USDA announced another new flash sale of U.S. corn exports to unknown destinations, with 125,000 metric tons sold for delivery in the 2025/26 marketing year. It's the second consecutive day of new corn sales to unknown destinations. Strength in the U.S. dollar makes American corn exports more expensive on the world stage. "Argentina remains slightly cheaper than the U.S., but U.S. exportable supplies obviously are significantly greater than Argentina's and U.S. export demand is expected to continue strong despite the sharp rally in the U.S. dollar this week," the Hightower Report noted.


AHEAD


-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.

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

-The USDA will release its monthly WASDE report at noon ET Tuesday.


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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-04-26 1519ET