By Kirk Maltais

-- Wheat for July delivery fell 1.9% to $6.61 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday after Egypt's grains buying authority canceled a previously announced tender.

-- Soybeans for July delivery fell 0.4% to 14.65 3/4 a bushel.

-- Corn for July delivery rose 1.2% to $6.67 1/2 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Canceled Purchase: Wheat futures led row crops lower Tuesday after Egypt's state grains buying service canceled a tender for purchasing foreign wheat for unknown reasons.

"Traders speculate that high [shipping] prices likely caused Egypt's public wheat importer to shy away from a purchase," said AgResource.

Egypt canceled a tender one other time this year, which was because of high prices.

According to AgResource, grain traders sold 8,500-9,000 contracts of wheat Tuesday as of midday.

Crop Drop: Monday's crop progress report showed a slide in crop quality for U.S. grains, which ended up having little effect in supporting grains futures. Corn crops in good-to- excellent condition are down to 68% from 72% last week.

Meanwhile, soybeans are down to 62% from 67% last week and spring wheat is down 1 point to 37%.

"Prices were unable to profit from this -- apart from those in the front-month contracts, which did so briefly -- as they remain under the influence of forecasts of better weather for the foreseeable future," said Commerzbank.

INSIGHTS

Turning Higher: Production of ethanol in the U.S. is expected to stay on the rise this week, according to analysts surveyed by Dow Jones. If production rises to the high end of analyst expectations -- to roughly 1.08 million barrels per day -- it will be the highest U.S. ethanol production has been since late February of last year, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the U.S.

Meanwhile, analysts surveyed expect stocks to rise to anywhere from 20.06 million barrels to 20.56 million barrels. If they do rise to the high end of expectations, it will be the highest stocks have been since early April.

Crushed Expectations: Soybeans crushed in the U.S. rose in May, according to data from the National Oilseed Processors Association. NOPA reported Tuesday that the soybean crush rate hit 163.5 million bushels in May, up from 160.3 million bushels in April.

However, the rate is lower than forecast by analysts, said Terry Reilly of Futures International. "The lower-than- expected U.S. May soybean crush and end-of-May soybean oil stocks is viewed supportive for soybean oil, in our opinion," he said.

Soyoil futures closed down 0.6% Tuesday to 65.57 cents per pound.

New Wave of Aid: U.S. farmers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic will receive additional aid payments totaling at least $2.6 billion, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday.

USDA said in a notice it is allocating the funds to agricultural producers that may have missed previous aid, as well as continuing to help sectors that have been hurt most by the pandemic. According to the USDA, biofuels producers are in line to receive $700 million, while small timber-harvesting businesses are up for $200 million in payments.

Dairy farmers are also in line to receive additional funding.

An unspecified amount of aid is scheduled to go to livestock producers as well, including those that were forced to euthanize animals because of the pandemic's impact on the economy in 2020.

AHEAD

-- The EIA is scheduled to release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

-- The USDA is due to release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. EDT Thursday.

-- The CFTC is scheduled to release its weekly commitments of traders report at 3:30 p.m. EDT Friday.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 15, 2021 15:45 ET (19:45 GMT)

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