By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for December delivery fell 0.3% to $5.07 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday, following a slide in European wheat prices.

--Corn for December delivery rose 0.1% to $3.75 3/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for January delivery gained 0.2% to $9.16 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Wheat Worries: The Egyptian state buying authority is seeking out more wheat, and Russian Black Sea wheat is expected to get a large portion of the tender, AgResource said. If that's the case, French wheat prices could fall to remain competitive with Russia. Those worries pushed wheat futures on the Euronext exchange slightly lower to EUR177.50 a metric ton.

More China Concerns: The latest hiccup in trade talks between the U.S. and China pushed soybeans lower. The reluctance of the Chinese to agree to $50 billion of agricultural purchases that President Trump announced last month is further eroding grain traders' hopes of a deal soon materializing. "We are concerned that China is only willing to buy enough beans to bridge the gap between what their needs will be and what South America will be able to supply," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage.

INSIGHT

Biofuel Blues: Ethanol production rose 16,000 barrels per day to 1.03 million barrels per day in the past week, but that was less than the 1.067 million-barrels-per-day target set by Allendale Inc. This means current production isn't meeting last year's levels, the firm said. It could also mean that ethanol producers aren't sanguine over the Trump administration's efforts to increase consumption of the biofuel.

Farmers Feeling It: Most agricultural lenders continue to report a decline in farm income and expect that trend to continue through the last few months of 2019, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve's quarterly survey of farm bankers. If the trend holds, it will mark six full years in which a majority of lenders reported declining farm income in the Fed district, which includes big farm states like Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. "The low price of grain and the falling price of cattle are going to make it hard on low-leveraged farmers and almost impossible for young, highly leveraged farmers," one Missouri lender said.

AHEAD

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

--The National Oilseed Processors Association will release its crush statistics at noon ET Friday.

--Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 14, 2019 16:31 ET (21:31 GMT)

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