Corn Futures Drop as Traders Look to Yearly Report — Daily Grain Highlights

By Kirk Maltais

--Corn for September delivery fell 0.8% to $4.14 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, with grains maintaining a lower trend ahead of next week's acreage report.

--Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.7% to $11.34 a bushel.

--Wheat for September delivery fell 0.2% to $5.95 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Big Kahuna: The USDA's acreage report, due on June 30, is the next major catalyst for grain futures, and the trend has been lower ahead of the report. That looks to have continued Wednesday. "There's no real evidence to argue that fund selling is ready to let up," said Matt Zeller of StoneX in a note, although the acreage report could potentially provide some surprises.

Cranking Up the Heat: Grain futures did get support Wednesday from a shift in weather expectations for the U.S. Corn Belt and Plains. The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center said that above-average temperatures are expected in the entire eastern half of the U.S. over the next 6-10 days. The worst of the heat is concentrating in eastern Corn Belt states including Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. But precipitation is expected to stay near normal through the central portion of the Corn Belt, and above-average in more northern growing areas. Additionally, many eastern growing areas have already received more than enough rain, making hot conditions welcome for farmers there.

Set Aside: The prospect of Iran buying agricultural goods from the U.S. as part of a peace agreement did little to move the needle for grain traders. "The market doesn't care about the potential Iran purchases," said Naomi Blohm of Total Farm Marketing. "While Iran does need to import some corn, beans and wheat annually--if the U.S. did get some of their business, it is not a 'market moving' purchase amount." In a post on Truth Social this morning, President Trump said that the U.S. "will be releasing some of their money" referring to Iran, to buy U.S. agriculture.

INSIGHT

Latest and Greatest: The Senate Ag Committee released its draft of the Agricultural Act of 2026 late Tuesday, branded "Farm Bill 2.0." The release of the bill garnered support from agricultural trade groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation, although the bill is also missing some hot-button topics like year-round E15 and California's Proposition 12.

Stock Build: Average daily production of ethanol in the U.S. fell from the prior week, while stocks increased, according to EIA data. For the week ended June 19, average daily ethanol production fell 12,000 barrels a day to 1.09 million barrels a day. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week forecast that average production would land anywhere between 1.03 million barrels a day and 1.115 million barrels a day. Inventories of ethanol rose for the week, to 24.59 million barrels, up 111,000 barrels from the prior week. Surveyed analysts had projected stocks to be within 24 million and 25 million barrels. D6 RINs--another term for renewable fuel credits, specifically those pertaining to ethanol--are up to new all-time highs Wednesday, rising to $2.393 a gallon, according to data from OPIS. They are up nearly 12% from this time last year.

Bunches of Bushels: Analysts surveyed by WSJ are forecasting an uptick in soybean export sales in the USDA's report this week. The data will cover the period through June 18, and analysts predict sales totaling between 700,000 metric tons and 1.4 million tons. That's compared to sales totaling 729,000 tons last week. Grain traders have been looking for signs that China is again buying U.S. soybeans, with the USDA publishing flash notices last week giving the ag market some optimism.

AHEAD

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

--The USDA will release its monthly Cold Storage report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.

--The USDA will release its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2026 15:35 ET (19:35 GMT)