By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for May delivery fell 3.3% to $5.50 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday as traders opted to sell off wheat after a consumer demand-fueled rally last month.

--Soybeans for May delivery fell 2.6% to $8.62 3/4 a bushel.

--Corn for May delivery fell 1.8% to $3.34 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Wheat Wavers: Wheat futures on the CBOT declined Wednesday after spending much of March on the rise. "Technicals have been signaling a downtrend and we are finally seeing that set in today," said Terry Reilly of Futures International. After rising 17% through the end of March, they've slipped 5% in the past five trading sessions. They had previously been on the rise in reaction to the rush of consumer demand for wheat flour products, like bread and pasta.

Almighty Dollar: Investors flocked today to the U.S. dollar as a safe haven in lieu of commodities like grains following dire warnings from President Trump about the potential U.S. death toll from the pandemic. "In the U.S., Covid-19 infections have soared to 189,633 with deaths of 4,100 for a mortality rate of 2.1%," said AgResource. "Last week, the U.S. death rate was just 1.4%, so like the rest of the world, the mortality outlook is grim."

INSIGHT

Ethanol Overflow: U.S. ethanol stockpiles rose to a record high, according to the latest data from the EIA. U.S. total ethanol stocks climbed to 25.7 million barrels, up 1.6 million from last week. Daily production dropped to 840,000 barrels per day, down 165,000 barrels from the previous week -- the lowest since September 2013. With crude oil prices down 66.5% year-to-date, ethanol production isn't profitable -- causing ethanol plants to close down operations and taking a sizable bite out of corn consumption.

Bad News Bears: The U.S. market may be awash in corn in 2020, if the USDA's acreage report from Tuesday is accurate. The USDA projection of 97 million corn acres in 2020 is the second-largest in the modern era. Acreage totaled 97.2 million acres in 2012. "Keep in mind that back in February/March of 2012, December corn was trading in the $5.50 [per bushel] zone compared with around $3.60 [per bushel] this year," said Dan Hueber of the Hueber Report.

Overseas Demand Slips: Grain export sales reported by the USDA are expected to be down from last week's strong showing, traders tell The Wall Street Journal. Wheat, corn and soybean exports are all expected to drop versus the previous week, according to traders. "This week's report should not be nearly as big as last week," said Brian Pullam of Linn & Associates. The report, scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday, may become a bearish factor in trading tomorrow due to weaker numbers - especially at a time when export demand is becoming more important as domestic demand is crimped by coronavirus.

AHEAD:

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

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

--The USDA releases its weekly grain export inspections data at 11 a.m. ET Monday.

--The USDA releases its first weekly crop progress report for the 2020/21 crop at 4 p.m. ET Monday.

Write to Kirk Maltais at Kirk.Maltais@WSJ.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 01, 2020 15:54 ET (19:54 GMT)

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