By Kirk Maltais

--Corn for December delivery rose 2.5% to $5.57 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, rising in response to U.S. ethanol production hitting its highest level in over 3 years.

--Wheat for December delivery rose 1% to $7.59 3/4 a bushel.

--Soybeans for November delivery rose 0.2% at $12.49 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Demand Surge: U.S. ethanol production rose this week, bringing the daily production rate to its highest since August 2018. In its latest report, the EIA said U.S. daily ethanol production through October 22 hit a rate of 1.11 million barrels per day, up from 1.1 million barrels per day reported last week. The gain breached the high-end of estimates from analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week and helped propel corn futures Monday.

Locking in Profit: Although grains finished higher Wednesday, profit taking was a source of pressure on Wednesday, particularly in the morning. Helping drive it was the movement in energy, with crude oil futures falling 2.4%, although natural gas prices climbed 3.2%.

Sizable Buy: Wheat futures finished higher as Egypt's state import agency bought 360,000 metric tons from a selection of Black Sea suppliers at an international wheat tender, traders told The Wall Street Journal. The sizable purchase included 180,000 tons of wheat from Russia, 120,000 tons from Ukraine, and 60,000 tons from Romania. Prices ranged from $327.00 a ton on the low end for one 60,000-ton cargo of Russian wheat, to $328.70 on the high end for a cargo of Ukrainian wheat of the same size.

INSIGHTS

Backing Off: U.S. grain export sales are expected to fall back from last week's levels - particularly for soybeans. According to grain traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week, soybean export sales are expected to total anywhere from 1.28 million metric tons to 2 million tons, down from 2.88 million tons reported by the USDA last week.

Healthier Herds: China's pork industry is in the late stages of rebuilding its hog herd after African swine fever decimated farms there in recent years, according to agriculture giant Bunge Ltd. "We haven't seen any major AFS impacts continue," said Greg Heckman, Bunge's CEO, and hog populations have rebounded so fast that some Chinese farmers have had to reduce their herds in the interest of profitability, he says. Mr. Heckman didn't raise concerns about China's need for animal feed, but traders have highlighted the rebuild of the herd as a factor affecting U.S. grain export demand.

AHEAD:

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

--The USDA will release its monthly agricultural prices report at 3 p.m. ET Friday.

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

Will Horner and Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2021 15:42 ET (19:42 GMT)

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