By Paulo Trevisani

--Corn for December delivery rose 1% to $6.63 1/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Wednesday amid increasing ethanol production.

--Soybeans for January delivery edged 0.5% higher to $14.36 a bushel.

--Wheat for March gained 0.4% to $8.13 1.2 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Preholiday Trading: Wheat and soybeans joined corn futures in a move to the positive side near the end of pre-holiday trading, even as markets face increasing supply from South America and the Black Sea amid fears of a demand-destruction recession. "Ukraine continues to export wheat/corn," AgResource said in a report. "Amid a record crop, Russia will stay an aggressive seller," it warned. The CBOT will be closed tomorrow for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Southern Competition: The USDA reported this week's first flash export sales: 110K metric tons of soybeans for delivery to China in the 2022/2023 marketing year. US soybeans face increasing competition from South America. "The Brazilian soybean planting is now 76% completed and given the good growing conditions there, we expect importers to rapidly begin to switch their buying from the US to Brazil," Summit's Tomm Pfitzenmaier said in a report.

INSIGHT

Ethanol Lift: Corn futures rose after the US weekly ethanol report, which showed production rising more than forecast, although inventories also increased above expectations. The EIA said production came in at 1.04 million barrels a day last week, up from 1.01 million the week before, while still lower than a year earlier. Ending stocks were reported at 22.8M barrels, up from 21.3 million in the week of November 11. Analysts surveyed by WSJ had forecast production between 1 million and 1.02 million barrels a day and stocks between 21.1 million and 21.2 million barrels.

Potential Headwinds: Grain futures reversed early losses, but producers face potential headwinds. "US and global supplies remain tight, but US prices are high enough relative to the rest of the world that the US is struggling with exports," RCM's Doug Bergman said in a report. Soybeans face the prospect of a record crop in Brazil. About corn, Bergman says that "US supplies are tight, but we're already at levels where demand is slowing."

AHEAD

--The USDA and the Chicago Board of Trade will both be closed Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving. Both will reopen Friday.

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

Write to Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 23, 2022 15:17 ET (20:17 GMT)