By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for September delivery fell 0.4%, to $6.74 1/2 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Tuesday, with grains traders waiting to see if hot weather in growing areas keeps crop conditions in a downward trend.

--Corn for December delivery fell 0.1%, to $5.46 1/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.1%, to $13.59 1/2 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Looking for Clarity: Grains traders kept trading light Tuesday, in anticipation for more clarity about hot weather's effects on crop yields. "For most of June/July it has not paid to chase a rally or push sales in a decline," said AgResource. "And traders want to be careful not get too bullish until they can itemize U.S. yield declines." Crop conditions were marked lower by the USDA in its crop progress report yesterday--and grain traders anticipate that next week's report will show conditions even more degraded, amid hot and dry weather conditions.

Bad Sign: A drop in crop conditions reported yesterday by the USDA provided some support for grains today. In the USDA's crop progress report Monday, the agency said that 64% of U.S. corn is in good-or-excellent condition, down one point from the same time last year. Soybeans fell two points to 58% good-or-excellent, and wheat fell two points to 9% good-or-excellent--an all-time low. "Given the stage of the growing season we are in it is unlikely we will see much improvement to these numbers," said Karl Setzer of AgriVisor.

INSIGHTS

Building Up: Inventories of ethanol in the U.S. are expected to again climb this week, according to analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week. According to analysts, ethanol inventories may climb to as high as 23.5 million barrels--the highest stocks have been since mid-February. This growth in stocks comes as Archer Daniels Midland reported today that it sees vehicle miles traveled this summer as back to pre-pandemic levels, and in some places surpassing that level.

Expanded Efforts: In its report today, ADM said a four-year carbon capture effort situated around its Decatur, Ill., crop-processing facilities is paying off, and can be applied to more of its operations in the future. Since 2017, ADM says that about 20,000 feet of wells have sequestered more than 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide underground, and CEO Juan Luciano said that expanding such carbon capture operations will let ADM market more of its products as "low carbon intensity," while lowering the carbon scores of its plants. "This is going to be a growing part of our operations, for sure," Mr. Luciano said.

AHEAD:

--The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

--Bunge Ltd. will release its second quarter earnings before the stock market opens Wednesday.

--Pilgrim's Pride Corp. will release its second quarter earnings after the stock market closes Wednesday.

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

--Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2021 15:11 ET (19:11 GMT)

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