By Kirk Maltais


--Corn for March delivery fell 1.9% to $5.87 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Thursday amid a rainfall forecast for South America over the weekend as well as still weak export sales reported by the USDA this morning.

--Soybeans for March delivery fell 1.6% to $13.77 1/4 a bushel.

--Wheat for March delivery fell 1.5% to $7.46 3/4 a bushel.


HIGHLIGHTS


Scattered Showers: Rainfall expected in Brazilian farming areas over the weekend pressured CBOT grain futures Thursday. "The CBOT ag markets are lower from selling ahead of the upcoming weekend rains for Argentina and southern Brazil," said Terry Reilly of Futures International. "The U.S. will be on holiday and many traders will not want to hold long positions over a 3-day weekend with a potential South American weather event." Scattered showers are expected in growing areas throughout the weekend, according to DTN.

Turning Around: Export sales of U.S. grains bounced back after plunging to marketing-year lows last week - although totals still disappointed traders. The USDA reported that for the week ended January 6, wheat export sales totaled 264,400 metric tons, corn sales tallied 457,700 tons, and soybean sales came in at 918,600 tons across both marketing years. All three of these totals are higher than in last week's report, and fall within the ranges projected by grain traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week - although mostly on the low end of expectations.


INSIGHTS


Out of Steam: The positive sentiment that drove gains in corn and soybean futures throughout December appears to have dried up, said Dan Hueber of the Hueber Report. "Sure, the USDA did make a reasonably sizable cut to the South American bean production numbers, but seeing we have been trading on that news for a few weeks...that hardly qualifies as a bullish surprise," Mr. Hueber said.

Shift in Risk: The economic risk stemming from Covid-19 and its latest variant is expected to have a lesser effect on grain futures and other commodities in 2022, said agricultural lender CoBank. "Economic risks from new, high-impact coronavirus variants will remain throughout 2022," said Dan Kowalski of CoBank. "But Americans are increasingly making peace with the notion that the virus, in some form, will be with us for months if not years, and we must find a way to live more normally with it. This shifting mindset will de-risk the economy to some degree." Economic concerns like inflation will have a bigger adverse impact on the farm economy, according to CoBank - with growing input costs cutting into the bottom line of farmers.


AHEAD:


-The CFTC will release its weekly commitment of traders report at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.

-The Chicago Board of Trade will be closed Monday in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

-The USDA will release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-13-22 1533ET