By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for December delivery gained 1.1% to settle at $4.89 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday in what was viewed as a technical move.

--Corn for December delivery rose 0.9% to $3.71 1/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for November delivery eased 0.6% lower to $8.88 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Bleak Future: U.S. wheat doesn't look to have a strong argument for rising any further for the rest of the year, said John Payne of Daniels Trading. "I think it's just short-covering," Mr. Payne said of Wednesday's uptick. "The speculators are just cleaning up their positions. There's no bullish driver there." Overseas demand isn't a factor, with U.S. prices far higher than foreign alternatives, he said.

Streak Broken: Three straight days of large U.S. soybean export purchases by Chinese buyers came to an end Wednesday, indicating that Beijing is more interested in seeing how talks play out before making any more goodwill buys. This approach inspired little enthusiasm from traders, who have seen this scenario repeated several times this year without any adequate conclusion.

INSIGHT

Ethanol Plant Shuts: Another ethanol plant is calling it quits, at least for now, blaming Trump administration energy policies. Siouxland Energy Cooperative, based in Iowa, this week moved to idle its 30 million-gallon-a-year plant, citing exemptions granted by the EPA to oil refineries, which Siouxland board President Kelly Nieuwenhuis said reduced ethanol demand. Siouxland isn't among the biggest U.S. ethanol plants, but it's the latest in a string of closures that some in the ethanol industry say could cost Farm Belt votes for President Trump next year.

And This Is Why: Ethanol inventories resumed their climb in the past week, even while production fell. Inventories rose by 739,000 barrels to 23.238 million barrels Wednesday, while production fell by 20,000 barrels per day to 1.003 million barrels per day. For a corn market concerned about falling demand, these statistics are a bearish indicator.

Brazilian Weather: Traders are watching the weather in soybean-growing nations for any hiccups that would constrict world supply and push prices higher. This is looking unlikely in Brazil, which the USDA expects will nudge ahead of the U.S. in soybean production this year. "The chances for rainfall in northern Brazil have improved," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage.

AHEAD

--The USDA will release its latest weekly export sales numbers at 8:30 a.m. EDT Thursday.

--The USDA releases its monthly Cattle On Feed report at 3 p.m. EDT Friday.

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

--Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 18, 2019 15:54 ET (19:54 GMT)

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