By Kirk Maltais
--Wheat for September delivery fell 1.7% to $6.40 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday, with grain traders reacting to indications of weaker export sales through the rest of the marketing year.
--Corn for December delivery fell 0.3% to $4.93 1/4 a bushel.
--Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.7% to $13.53 1/4 a bushel.
HIGHLIGHTS
Demand Drudgery: Wheat futures lagged behind corn and soybean futures on Monday, due to a weak outlook for U.S. export sales of wheat. "Our wheat export sales are just 2/3rds the year ago pace - not too spiffy as foreign competition is intense," said Joel Karlin of Ocean State Research. Karlin added that supportive weather for spring crops is applying pressure to wheat futures.
Continuing Surge: Friday's acreage report from the USDA was still a major factor driving soybean futures on Monday, with the drop of projected soybean acres to 83 million acres expected to have sizable consequences for new crop supply. "Some feel the lower acres/crop could offset a lower export demand and drop US 2023/24 soybean carryout to near 160 million bushels," said Steve Freed of ADM Investor Services in a note. However, soybeans largely pared gains seen earlier in the day.
INSIGHT
Slumped Interest: Open interest in agricultural futures took a 4.5% tumble in the week ended June 30, driven mostly by a collapse in prices for grain futures that week, JPMorgan Global Commodities Research said in a note. JPMorgan says open interest fell to $289.16 billion for the week, down from over $300 billion the previous week. The decline is seasonal, according to JPMorgan, pointing to grains taking a similar fall in open interest at this point last year. Agricultural futures were the biggest losers in open interest among futures this week, with precious and industrial metals shedding 1.5%.
Inching Higher: Inspections of U.S. grain exports turned higher in the USDA's latest report, although levels remain generally low. In its latest grain export inspections report for the week ended June 29, the USDA said corn export inspections totaled 642,900 metric tons, soybean inspections totaled 250,055 tons and wheat inspections totaled 336,349 tons. Brazil was the leading destination for U.S. wheat, Japan was the leading destination for corn, and Indonesia was the leading destination for soybeans. All three of these totals are slightly higher than the previous week's figures.
AHEAD
--The Chicago Board of Trade and USDA will be closed in observance of the Independence Day holiday on Tuesday, and will reopen on Wednesday.
--The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.
--The USDA will release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-03-23 1501ET
