By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for March delivery fell 1.6% to $7.34 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Friday, as the WASDE report from the USDA showed mostly expected results, with many forecasts left unchanged from the previous month.

--Soybeans for January delivery fell 0.2% to $14.83 3/4 a bushel.

--Corn for March delivery rose 0.2%, to $6.44 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Subdued Reaction: Grain futures trading on the CBOT were generally muted following the release of the USDA's WASDE report, instead slowly slipping lower. Much of the muted reaction stems from limited changes to existing forecasts by the USDA in the report. "USDA opted to leave South American production unchanged from a month ago despite the rough start to the Argentine growing season," said Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives in a note. "Overall, nothing too shocking in the numbers today."

Hitching a Ride: Strength in crude oil prices provided a boost for most grain futures early in the trading session. "The outside markets are generally supportive with the crude oil and equity market trading higher, but the dollar slightly lower," Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage said in a note this morning. However, oil eventually lost its sheen, with the contract closing down 0.6%.

INSIGHTS

Eyes on the Prize: What allowed wheat futures to lead the way down was a lack of post-report momentum, which in turn did little to reverse the selling trend seen in wheat since October. The most-active contract fell close to a low established earlier this week--which is the lowest the contract has traded at since July 2021.

Lingering Problem: Friday's WASDE report did little to assuage concerns about longer-term corn demand. In its report, the agency forecast an ending inventory of 1.26 billion bushels of corn for the 2022/23 marketing year. That's up 75 million bushels from the USDA's previous estimate in last month's report. The uptick in ending stocks comes from a cut made to expected export sales, the USDA said in the report. "Competition from other exporters and relatively high U.S. prices have resulted in slow sales and shipments through early December," it added.

AHEAD:

--The USDA will release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Monday.

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

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

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2022 15:25 ET (20:25 GMT)

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