By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for December delivery rose 0.9% to $5.12 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Tuesday, with the U.S. contract following European and Russian prices higher.

--Corn for December delivery rose 0.6% to $3.70 a bushel.

--Soybeans for January delivery rose 0.1% to $9.11 1/2 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Global Wheat Fix: Black Sea and European wheat futures gained on speculation that supplies from South America and South Africa could shrink due to a lack of rainfall in those areas. That was enough to push U.S. wheat higher. "Wheat rallied on chart buying and firmer talk on Black Sea prices, with little hard news around," said Charlie Sernatinger of ED&F Man Capital. The February Black Sea wheat contract rose 0.5% on the CME, while the Euronext milling wheat contract for December climbed 1.3%.

Winter Bluster: Corn harvests in the northern states are behind schedule due to late planting and freezing temperatures, raising the possibility of crops being left in the fields. North Dakota has harvested 23% of its corn, compared with its five-year average of 85%, and Michigan has brought in about 39%, below its five-year average of 75%.

INSIGHT

Shipping Out: Corn exports got a boost with a purchase of 191,000 metric tons of corn for delivery to unknown destinations in the 2019/20 marketing year, the USDA said. This, combined with Monday's sale of 132,000 tons, also to unknown destinations, makes it over 300,000 tons sold just this week -- good news for those looking for higher U.S. corn export figures. U.S. corn exports have fallen more than 20% since the 2017/18 marketing year, in part due to the Trump administration's trade policies.

New Year, New Forecasts: Traders must wait until January, when the USDA's WASDE report is released, to get a fuller picture of what the cold and snow have done to the 2019/20 corn crop. "Very poor quality corn is being harvested in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska and surrounding areas," said Joel Karlin of Western Milling. Farmers also are facing the added expense of rising propane prices as they try to dry their crops. For these reasons, "some are forecasting a much lower harvested acreage and yield for the 2019 U.S. corn crop in the January production report," Mr. Karlin said.

AHEAD

--The EIA releases its weekly update on ethanol production and inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

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

--The USDA will release its monthly cattle on feed report at 3 p.m. ET Friday.

--The USDA will release its monthly cold storage report at 3 p.m. ET Friday.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 19, 2019 16:46 ET (21:46 GMT)

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